A GROUP of travellers who arrived at Cotswold Leisure Centre car park on Tuesday night have now left.

Cotswold District Council (CDC) said on Wednesday morning that they would take legal action if necessary to ensure the group vacated, however, they left that evening.

While the whole car park is now available for use, a crew from Ubico Ltd will be cleaning the area vacated by the travellers this morning, so some spaces are temporarily unavailable.

Following the arrival of the travellers, a CDC spokesman had said: "We have no reason to believe that the travellers will be hostile.

“Nevertheless, the Leisure Centre has recruited security staff to protect employees and the public using the facility.”

Various Cirencester residents had called for CDC to do more to prevent travellers from camping in the town’s car parks after a group arrived in Beeches car park last month.

Writing on Facebook, regarding the travellers in Beeches, Barry Parsons said: “I just cannot understand why these vehicles seem to get special treatment over any other illegally parked vehicle.

“If they are parked in marked bays without a valid payment for their stay, they should be ticketed.

“If a repeat occurrence, they should be towed away and scrapped.”

Mike Marshall said: “Getting fed up with this and they don't even pay for parking and who pays for the clean-up. The good citizens of Cirencester again.”