A group of travellers who were pitched in George Yard car park have been moved on after the use of an injunction.

Travellers arrived in the car park on Eastern Avenue on October 18, taking up around a third of the space.

There were also allegations of an attempted break in to the Shepherds Spring Lane car park at the same time.

After Test Valley Borough Council alerted Hampshire Constabulary, officers from both organisations arrived this morning to enforce the injunction.

The injunction makes it illegal for travellers from setting up unauthorised encampments within Andover which extends from Wherwell in the west to Picket Piece in the east.

Under threat of arrest, the travellers have now dispersed from the site.

Councillor Phil North, leader of Test Valley Borough Council, said: "As soon as they arrived last night and I was tipped off by local residents, I contacted senior Test Valley Borough Council officers who were immediately in contact with the police.

"Both the police and Test Valley officers attended the site first thing and told them they had to leave or they would be detained. The travellers then swiftly left the site.

"A huge thank you to Hampshire Constabulary for assembling the required resource to ensure they could carry out the arrests this morning, if the travellers refused to leave.

"I’m delighted that our injunction continues to be successful and that instead of a lengthy court process that would usually take several days, we were able to remove them in a matter of hours. I hope this will act as yet a further deterrent that we won’t tolerate unauthorised traveller encampments in and around Andover."

The injunction was first used at the end of September to evict travellers at Walworth Business Park.

At the start of the month, TVBC passed a motion to lobby the government to make trespass a criminal offence in order to further combat unauthorised encampments.