Travellers have been greeted with a tough response from the authorities after they moved on to unofficial sites.

Residents in Burgess Hill are angry about the filth left behind after one group of travellers left a disused factory where they had been camping for more than a week.

The area was strewn with litter, soiled nappies, gas cylinders and piles of tree clippings when the group moved off the site of Knowles Electronics in Victoria Road.

Residents said the area had also been used as a toilet while the travellers were there.

Martin Cull, of South Way, Burgess Hill, said: "We are happy we have got rid of them. For the first time in ten days we have got our windows open. We have not got generators going at all hours, we have not got cockerels screeching and I can feel secure in my own home.

"I am not going to be put through this again. I have lived here for 18 years and for the last ten days my life and the other residents' lives have been hell."

John Scott, of Victoria Avenue, said: "It is absolutely diabolical, unbelievable, what they have left behind. If they had turned up and not been so noisy and not made a mess it is conceivable I would have ignored them.

"I am still extremely distressed about the lack of information and communication from the authorities. They really did not appear to be bothered."

PC Jon Lelliott, of Burgess Hill police said: "It looks like a bomb site. There are great piles of tree cuttings, broken toys, bicycles, gas containers and dozens of litter bins.

"This is what bugs me. The travellers act as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths and say they will leave the place tidy but they don't and it is disgusting."

Inspector Andy Carter, at the public order training unit with Sussex police, said: "I suppose the course we take is a reasoned and logical approach.

"Sometimes we may operate a zero tolerance policy. It depends on where the travellers have set up camp. Other times we may think it is the best place for them to be and leave it up to the council or landowner to move them on. Every case is judged on its individual merits."

More than 17 vans arrived on the site on February 10. The group eventually moved off the site of their own accord following ten days of negotiations with council officers and police.

A spokeswoman for West Sussex County Council said: "We are investigating the possibility of putting the travellers on the waiting list for one of our 12 sites and they are in contact with the county council traveller liaison officer." There are five official sites in the Mid Sussex area.

Travellers who moved five caravans and about ten vans on to parkland in Brooklands Park in Worthing have been watched by security guards since they arrived.

Worthing Borough Council posted the guards to the site soon after their arrival at the car park which has a height restriction bar at the entrance.

Travellers at the park refused to speak to The Argus.

Simon Aley, head of the council's legal services, said: "We will do as we always do, make enquiries on site, issue papers into court and get a court order to have them removed.

"If that doesn't move them we will have them taken off the land. In the last five years we have only ever had to tow one lot away.

"Usually the police give us some bit of prior warning but we have had no prior warning this time. They have come completely out of the blue."

Chris Thorpe, assistant director of community services, said: "Council security contractors are on site to try and prevent incursions into other parts of the site.

"They will be there until hopefully we get the travellers moved off."

Emma Nuttall, unit manager with the Friends, Families and Travellers Information Unit in Brighton said: "There is a shortage of official sites and it is estimated a third of travellers have nowhere to stop.

"Since 1994 local authorities no longer have a duty to find sites for them. They are being continually evicted and chased around from pillar to post.

"There is often this outcry by people but they don't think about travellers not being able to have access to running water or electricity or waste collection."

Ms Nuttall said the latest official revealed there were 161 caravans in West Sussex. Of that 91 were on council sites, 18 were on private authorised sites and 52 were in unauthorised encampments.

"I think it has an adverse impact on health and education. So many are moved on continuously they don't have the chance of adequate schooling.

"They have the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates. There are very high levels of stress and depression among travellers.

"The majority of travellers are peaceful and law-abiding.

"Racism against travellers is almost like the last acceptable racism in Britain. It is still very focussed on the minority who cause trouble rather than the law-abiding majority."