Travellers and gipsies have sparked anger by turning up at a park only a week after another group was evicted.

Neighbours and councillors are demanding tougher enforcement or a permanent travellers' site in Brighton and Hove to stop the recurring problem of illegal encampments in Wild Park and Stanmer Park, off Lewes Road.

They were upset by a group of 100 travellers who left human excrement, nappies, underwear and fly-tipped rubbish when they moved from the Wild Park on August 13.

Residents in the area and local councillors were dismayed when another group of about 20 travellers arrived from Eastbourne on Sunday.

Wild Park caf owner Michelle Funnell, who cleared up a lot of the mess left behind last time, said Brighton and Hove City Council should tighten security at the parks.

She said: "The gates have got big concrete boulders so they've obviously driven over the banks or round the side of the green. I want to know how they're going to prevent them.

"They spend all our money paying for it to be cleaned up but won't pay for fencing.

"I lose a lot of trade when they're about. I end up cleaning up after the kids while their parents sit in their caravans, it's a joke."

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairman of the council's environment committee, said a traveller liaison officer visited the new group yesterday to begin the procedure of moving them on.

Eviction can be immediate if sporting events are jeopardised, otherwise an eviction has to be processed through the courts and enforced by bailiffs, which can take weeks.

Brighton and Hove City Council has spent £10,000 in the past financial year securing eviction orders but Councillor Francis Tonks of Moulsecoomb ward said there should be tougher enforcement.

He said: "We do our best by travellers, we are fairly accommodating to people. It has to be done properly but they have to be moved on as speedily as possible.

"Perhaps the penalties should be greater if they commit a crime the second time. It's such an insult to local people to have all the rubbish dumped on their green spaces."

Councillor Bill Randall said the recent camp was just part of the ongoing "revolving door" season and a permanent site was needed.

He said: "We're just shifting people around the city. I think we should be producing a site but they left a dreadful mess which doesn't help their case. They have rights but they also have responsibilities.

Challenge "We need a permanent site within a plan of sites for the whole South- East of England. What's happening isn't solving any problems. I'd like to see the Government reintroduce a statutory responsibility to provide sites for gipsies and travellers."

Councillor Craig Turton said: "Please tell me where in the city they recommend we have a permanent site? I'd issue that as a challenge to any member of the council. We need a debate on the issue."

Coun Mitchell said she was happy that the process of assessing travellers' accommodation needs was progressing at a regional level.

She said all councils in East Sussex had assessed travellers' needs and their estimates were currently with the South-East England Regional Assembly, which would then tell the city how many pitches to provide.

Brighton's Friends, Families and Travellers advocacy group has repeatedly called for more official sites, saying that gipsies are often shifted from one unauthorised site to another because of the shortage.

It said the shortage made it very difficult for families, who were caught in a cycle of eviction.