THE owner of a derelict dairy works has been contacted by a group of councillors after travellers moved on to the site.

Six caravans moved onto the site in Chigwell Road in South Woodford, just south of Charlie Brown's roundabout and next door to Oakdale Junior School.

Neighbours are concerned about the impact on the area, and Liberal Democrat ward councillors are seeking their eviction.

Resident Keith Dowley, 46, of Granville Road, said: “There were bonfires going on over there on Thursday and Friday night, burning rubbish.

“You'd think something would have been done by now, what with the school so close. It makes you wonder how they're going to dispose of their waste and everything.

“How did they manage to get in? If the site's padlocked up, isn't it breaking and entering?”

A spokeswoman for Redbridge Council said: “The emergency planning team attended on December 8 and spoke to the travellers who at that stage did not require any immediate support.

“In line with our policy on traveller encampment a site visit is being arranged by the relevant service areas to assess the needs of the occupants.

“We haven't had any complaints, only comments about a bonfire that had been lit."

A number of traveller settlements have appeared in the area in recent years.

In 1998, as many as 85 caravans occupied a patch of Roding Valley Park, off Chigwell Road, before being evicted within a few days.

Two years later, the Guardian reported that Tommy O'Conner and his family of nine had parked their caravans and constructed a shed on a site behind Sky Peals Road in Woodford Green.

Gill Brown, of the London Gipsy and Traveller Unit, said: “Over the last twenty years or so there has been an erosion of facilities specifically set aside for traveller families.

“Without a place to live permanently, they are forced to live in their traditional way and move from place to place.

“What we would like to see is more done to provide facilities for travellers so that they can live alongside the settled community.”

The Guardian visited the site but no-one was available for comment.