TRAVELLERS have moved on to fields used by Millbrook Rugby Club in Redbridge Lane, Southampton.

About 15 vans moved on to the site at the weekend.

It is believed that the travellers came from Poole in Dorset where large groups had been camped on a recreation ground and a park-and-ride facility.

The rugby club will not be using the field until the rugby season begins in September but officials fear that the pitches will be littered with rubbish when the travellers eventually leave.

Club secretary Jackie Ings said: "We don't have any rugby planned until the beginning of September and they should be shifted by then.

"The site is owned by the City Council and there is nothing we can do."

Southampton City Council officers paid a first visit to the site yesterday to conduct a welfare assessment of the travellers.

They will then issue court proceedings to evict the families from the site.

A city council spokesman said: "This is our first visit to the site.

"We are now following usual procedures to retake possession of council land. This should take two weeks."

A Hampshire police spokesman said police only had limited powers to deal with the situation under criminal law.

She said: "As the situation stands with this sort of thing, it is the landowners and their agents who have legal responsibility to deal with travellers.

"The police have no powers to deal with that. Trespass is a civil matter."