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.

David Baker, duty manager at Basildon Sporting Village, praised the police for their help.

He said: "It was a massive inconvenience with half the car park taken up at least, many customers couldn't get in. Monday nights are our busiest nights.

"People were missing our on their lessons, the gymnastics hall classes, classes in the gym, customers weren't even bothering to come down because they knew it was a massive inconvenience.

"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."