TRAVELLERS have avoided eviction from the seafront by moving a few yards down a road into a car park.

A group of vehicles arrived at the Black Rock end of Madeira Drive on Brighton seafront last December.

Four weeks on, before they could be issued with notices to move yesterday, the encampment shifted into the car park at Black Rock. The move has given the travellers more time as the authorities now need to re-apply to the courts for powers to move them on.

A statement from Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Court orders were obtained for Madeira Drive on Wednesday. However, prior to the eviction, the group moved on to land at Black Rock car park.

“The court orders obtained only apply for the highway and not the adjacent land.

“We will therefore be applying to the county court to reinstate the previous writ of possession.”

The city council obtained a possession order for the land through the county court on January 13 and had hoped to move them on before now, having served the owners of the vehicles with Section 77 notices.

Travellers turned up at Black Rock at least three times last year – for two weeks in February, a few days in late July and then in mid-October.

Aside from Black Rock, travellers in Preston Park, Brighton, were given parking tickets by the council earlier this week.

Officers from the council visited the site with police and obtained a possession order for the land.

The council’s traveller team has said officers from the High Court will attend the site “early next week” to evict them from the land.

The council said joint visits had been made with parking enforcement officers and tickets given out where appropriate.

Elsewhere in the city, an unauthorised encampment of van-dwellers remained on land adjacent to Devil's Dyke Road last night and also on land north of Warren Road, near Woodingdean.

In both cases, the council will be applying to the county court for a possession order to arrange for an eviction to be carried out if they fail to leave voluntarily.