A GROUP of travellers who illegally moved onto a sport centre car park have left.

The Echo reported yesterday morning that around 20 caravans had moved onto the car park of Basildon Sporting Village overnight on Sunday, and remained there Monday morning.

Essex Police and Basildon Council stated they were aware of the issue and were working with the travellers to ensure they moved on quickly.

As of Tuesday morning, all of the traveller caravans have left the car park.

Emily Jones, duty manager at Basildon Sporting Village, said staff had endured threats of violence but praised the police’s quick response.

She said: “It was quite an inconvenience but thankfully we did not have to cancel any classes.

"There were a few cases that threatening words were given by them to staff, but all of our team handled it extremely well and there were no serious incidents.

"The first caravans started leaving at around 5.30pm on Monday, and the last one left at 8.40pm that night.

"The police were fantastic, we can't fault them for their help, they were just great."

David Baker, another duty manager, said: "When they first came in we were trying to stop them using our facilities and they didn’t like that, they got quite aggressive and we had to get the police involved because they were threatening violence against our colleagues.

“The police were really great, they dealt with everything very quickly and had a presence here all day on Monday which stopped anymore hassle from them.”

A spokesman for Basildon Council said: “As a result of effective partnership working between Basildon Council and Essex Police, a group of travellers left Basildon Sporting Village on Monday night after being informed that they were in breach of a High Court injunction.

"The injunction was obtained by Basildon Council in November 2017 to prevent unauthorised encampments at specified industrial and park areas within the borough.”