EVICTING travellers from sites illegally occupied in Hampshire is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds each year.

In Southampton alone £50,000 has been spent moving on travellers from sites across the city in the past six months. The costs come from legal fees to get rid of the travellers from council land - and massive clean-up bills once they have moved on.

Other costs include officer time to prepare eviction orders against travellers - plus security measures at sites they have occupied so they cannot return to the area.

The bills to Southampton taxpayers were revealed following the eviction of travellers from a sports field at St Mark's Junior School in Shirley over the weekend.

The group - which first appeared in the city in May this year - had stayed four weeks on the land owned by the Civil Service Sports Council until their final eviction over the weekend.

They are believed to have headed towards London once the eviction notice was served.

Yesterday, council bosses began the massive clean-up operation at the site which is littered with rubbish including old mattresses, empty gas bottles, broken television sets and piles of tar, and the entrance to the site has been blocked.

A city council spokesman told the Daily Echo that costs of evicting the travellers from the site would be £10,000 alone. City chiefs would hope to recover some of the cash from the owners of the land, the Civil Service Sports Council.

He said: "We are a responsible authority. If we did not clean-up the site, nobody else would."

Over the last year travellers have blighted residents' lives and left a costly trail of destruction across Hampshire.

Groups have illegally set up temporary home on land off Stoneham Lane in Eastleigh, Cunningham Gardens in Bursledon and Tollbar Way in Hedge End.

Council leader Keith House said: "We have not worked out an exact figure on how much we have spent but it definitely runs into tens of thousands of pounds. Any eviction takes up officers' time involving countryside, leisure and legal departments.

"On top of that we also have the on-site costs of removing rubbish, repairing damage and installing posts to prevent further incursions."

In Fareham travellers have moved on to land at Peak Lane in Stubbington and Fareham Leisure Centre. At Holly Hill Park in Sarisbury Green they drove over gravestones and left human excrement behind.

Council leader Sean Woodward estimates the yearly cost of clearing up after them to be in the region of £50,000.

Meanwhile, the Hampshire branch of the National Farmers' Union is demanding tougher government action to crack down on travellers.

Farmers say that the biggest problem caused by travellers is the illegal dumping of rubbish.

More than 20 per cent say they have been the victim of physical threats with over half saying they have had equipment stolen.

The county's farmers estimate that evicting the travellers, cleaning up waste and repairs costs them around £500 each year.

NFU deputy president Tim Bennett said: "It is clear that the problem of illegal travellers is growing so bad that the majority of rural farmers have been affected by these 'rural outlaws' in some way."

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham said legislation to tackle the problem of travellers would come into effect next year.

He said: "The key thing is the powers which are going through in the new AntiSocial Behaviour Bill. They will enable police to move travellers much more quickly, providing there is a temporary site for them to go to."

He added that local authorities would need to create a "network" of temporary sites which could be built on council-owned land.

He said: "What it will mean is that local authorities will need to work together to make sure there are enough temporary sites to which people can be directed. Each local authority can't do it on its own."