LEGAL action is being taken to move a group of travellers from near a Barrow business park.

Several caravans were first spotted parked up close to Furness Business Park just before Christmas.

Barrow Borough Council said they were ordered to leave by January 6 but they remained on the site at the James Freel war memorial.

One business owner said several firms on the estate were fearful for a potential drop in trade as a result.

In addition to that, the dogs belonging to the travellers have been barking constantly and the owners of the caravans have allegedly been hostile towards people going past, one business owner claimed.

Councillor Ann Thomson, the leader of Barrow Borough Council, said: “Some members of the travelling community arrived at James Freel Close shortly before Christmas.

“A formal Direction to Leave notice was served requiring them to leave the site by January 6.

“The council is now taking further legal action to ensure compliance with the order mentioned above.”

Another issue members of the public in the James Freel Close area have had is that the travellers have been supplied with bins, which they believe could entice them to stay longer.

But a council spokesman explained the bins were provided so that rubbish did not pile up.

“This isn’t a signal in any way that those at the location are entitled to stay – it’s simply so that rubbish doesn’t pile up,” the spokesman said.

According to recent data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, there were 11 traveller caravans in Barrow last summer – unchanged from July 2019, when the last summer count took place.

Of those counted last year, none were on unauthorised pitches unlike those parked up now.

Across England, 21,000 traveller caravans were on approved pitches at the first count since the coronavirus pandemic began – almost 90 per cent of those counted.

However, the figures show 3,000 were on unauthorised encampments, with most of those situated on land belonging to travellers and Gypsies.

The number of caravans parked up on other unapproved sites has dropped by a third nationally since the last summer count was conducted in July 2019.

New legislation could threaten the nomadic traditions of Gypsies and traveller communities by criminalising unauthorised encampments, the Friends, Families and Travellers charity warned, as it called the proposed measures “draconian”.

Currently passing through Parliament, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would see police given greater powers to tackle such encampments, including the right to seize vehicles and impose heavy fines on those trespassing “with intent to reside”.