Residents confronted police last night to criticise their handling of an 18-hour rave by travellers at a beauty spot.

Senior officers defended their actions at a heated meeting of of Telscombe Town Council.

Councillors voted to investigate a scheme to fence off Telscombe Tye and turn it into an environmentally sensitive agricultural area.

That would allow the common land to be hired out to a farmer who could fence it off to graze cattle and be given responsibility for maintaining the plot.

Councillors believe this would give police more grounds to force travellers off the land on the grounds that any mass intrusion would upset livestock.

Many residents are against fencing off the Tye, saying it would strip the spot of its character as common land.

They say the police are not taking tough enough action to move travellers.

The outcry follows tensions with local residents that reached boiling point over the rave last month.

Bailiffs ordered the group to leave the site, part of a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, by September 17.

But residents say police should have forced the travellers to move on straight away before the rave got going.

John Carden, of Wicklands Avenue, East Saltdean, said he telephoned the police the day after the rave started.

He said: "They could have moved in then and moved them off the site before it happened."

Inspector Ron Preddy, of Sussex Police, defended the force's decision not to intervene.

He said: "We are living in the real world. These people have rights, whether you like it or not."

He was supported by Detective Inspector Steve Dennis, who said it was not necessarily the job of the police to move travellers on.

He said: "If there are more than 20 vehicles we can get them off and we will do if there are aggravating circumstances.

"We could try to move them on but they may move into the town centre somewhere.

"We would also have had to have at least 70 officers. Where would we have got 70 officers at that time of night?"

Councillor David Neighbour said East Sussex County Council and neighbouring authorities should work together to provide more legitimate travellers' sites.

He said: "We can't expect the police to move them on if there is going to be the same problem five miles down the road. I would like to thank the police for their efforts."

But Coun Anthony Hunter said: "People who live like this live like this by choice. They know what is going on, they know the law perhaps better than we do.

"We have to show them we can be tough. If we are soft, word will get around and more will come."