Top police chiefs have claimed they are struggling to cope with "overwhelming" numbers of travellers swamping the Braintree district.

Speaking at a packed meeting of the Essex Police Community Consultative Group in Braintree on Monday night, Supt Peter Sheldrake said: "We have moved more travellers on in the last two months than we ever moved in the last two years."

He said the district was being flooded by travellers who were setting up new camps just minutes after his officers moved them off old ones.

Some travellers even drafted in their own solicitors to block eviction orders, he claimed.

And police powers to take action were limited if travellers camped on private land, where the landlord was responsible for moving them on.

Mr Sheldrake stressed not all travellers caused problems and praised 500 mourners who gathered for a funeral last week without any reported incidents.

But there were claims Braintree and Witham was seen as a "soft touch" by travellers.

And Mr Sheldrake admitted he would rather see travellers camped at the Springwood industrial estate - which faced an £8,000 clean-up bill after the travellers left in April - than see them moving on to more sensitive sites.

Mr Sheldrake said it could take up to 60 officers to force a 15-van convoy to move on.

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