An abandoned caravan described as an eyesore has been removed from a road in Shirley after first appearing in January.

The caravan was first spotted on Regents Park Road before it was dumped in Clifton Road.

Vigilantes repeatedly vandalised and graffitied the trailer over a five-month period, calling for Southampton City Council to remove the vehicle in expletive laden language.

It was given multiple seven-day and 24-hour destruction notices in that time.

The council has now confirmed that the caravan was finally removed from Clifton Road on Wednesday, May 22.

This was to the delight of Paul Henley, 70, who lives in Clifton Road.

He told the Echo: “I’m sure everyone is relieved as I think most people had become used to seeing it, which really shouldn’t be the case.

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He added: “I think the performance from the council has been really poor and certainly if this kind of thing was to happen again, you wouldn’t expect it to take so long.”

Having first been graffitied, the abandoned caravan was then used as a tip, with people dumping rubbish in black bin bags inside the vehicle, as well as cardboard boxes, buckets, and even car tires.

“Looking at what was inside it, it could have been a real fire hazard if someone decided to set it alight,” said Paul.

“It’s been said before, but it was a real eyesore.”

Paul wrote to the council intermittently since the beginning of February, asking for the vehicle to be removed as quickly as possible, fearing it could be dangerous.

He said at the time: “There’s a lot of young people who have had to walk past it every day on the way to and from school – as well as quite elderly people who live in the road.

“If a child decided to climb inside and have a look, who knows what they would find or what might happen?”

A resident of Clifton Road for 40 years, Paul said he’d never known anything like it.

He went on to say: “Hopefully now that’s the end of everything and the road can return to normal.”