Travellers have outraged residents who claim they have defecated near their property, let their dogs run wild and smashed windows.

Forty caravans have moved to the grounds of a derelict factory on Meadow Road Industrial Estate in Worthing after spending a week in Southdownview Road.

However, as they have been camping on private property, the council is not obliged to take action. The police also have limited powers, though they say they are monitoring the situation.

Cheryle Gumbrell, of Southdownview Road, said the travellers left their road in such a mess she and her husband are still picking up rubbish.

Mrs Gumbrell said: "We were under siege for a week. They went to the toilet outside. The children were running on the roof of a nearby factory and smashed all the windows.

"Their dogs and chickens were running loose in the road and nearly caused an accident. It was a nightmare.

"They played loud music all day and their generators were going until the early hours of the morning. They're a law unto themselves.

"We have a beautiful home and it's a quiet street usually. When they arrived we were scared to leave the house because they were watching everything we did."

John Thorpe, assistant director of community services, said: "If they're on council land they are a nuisance and it costs the council time and money to move them on.

"It's a constant problem. At the moment they're not on council land so it's not our responsibility to clean up after them.

"Under legislation, if we take action through the courts and remove them from public land they go to other sites and we have to start the process all over again."

Emma Nuttall, a unit manager with the Friends, Families and Travellers Information Unit in Brighton, said: "It is estimated a third of travellers have nowhere to stop. The majority of travellers are peaceful and law abiding."

When an Argus photographer went to take a picture of the latest encampment, travellers swore at him and threw bricks at his car.