Travellers were evicted from a Letchworth site on Tuesday morning, as complaints about the presence of another group in the town continue.

North Herts District Council officers – accompanied by police – visited the disused council depot on Icknield Way at about 10.30am to evict a group of travellers, a week after about 10 caravans parked up there.

Councillor Bernard Lovewell, responsible for housing and environmental health issues at the district council, said: “A notice was issued to the travellers last week informing them that they were occupying council-owned land and that they were required to leave the old depot site. They have now moved off the site and we have instructed bailiffs to secure the land.”

There has also been a group of around 15 caravans, as well as cars and vans, parked at the former GW King factory on Blackhorse Road since August 25.

Herts police say the landowner of the site is currently in talks with the travellers and is in the process of getting an eviction order through the courts.

Fire crews were called to the site at about 4pm on Friday after a small fire was started in the open, before being extinguished 10 minutes later.

No injuries were reported but the fire is believed to have been started deliberately.

Steve Grover, of Hertfordshire Timber & Building Supplies Ltd which is based in Blackhorse Road, said: “The fire is a worry to us because we have a yard full of flammable timber.”

A Letchworth resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The noise that is being made by the generators is unacceptable. We are having to shut our windows at night, and over the past couple of weeks it has been very hot.

“They don’t seem to have any respect for the people living around them. On Saturday night they were making noise into the early hours of the morning.

“Neighbours are worried to let their children out to play because things have been thrown over the fence at them.

“There is a huge amount of disturbance every day. I live on my own and at the moment I don’t feel safe.”