A court order has been issued to force travellers to leave a Borehamwood car park.

The travellers have been occupying the former Elstree Business Centre car park since Monday morning, when a convoy of 35 caravans moved in.

A witness, who asked not to be named, reported they broke in through the gates using bolt cutters and set up camp.

The original group departed on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

The travellers left behind piles of rubbish including sofas, mattresses, broken glass, DVDs, rubble, window frames and boxes of bank statements and VAT receipts, none of which had been there before, according to several witnesses.

Another group of ten caravans moved in to occupy a patch of land next door, also owned by Legal and General, at Tuesday lunch-time.

Hertsmere Borough Council’s environmental health team, along with police officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary, were at the scene this afternoon.

They caught a truck adding waste to the existing piles of rubbish and traced it to the travellers who were still there.

The travellers, surrounded by children, hurled abuse at police and environmental officers after they said they would confiscate the truck.

One said: “If you leave that truck here we’ll tell thousands of travellers around here Borehamwood is no place for them.

“If you take it we’ll be in Borehamwood for a long time to come. You do what you have to do and I’ll do what I have to do.”

He told the Borehamwood Times: “These caravans are our homes. We’re always there illegally and we’re moved from place to place. We’ve nowhere else to go.”

A spokeswoman for landlords Legal and General said: “We are aware of the situation and working very hard to resolve it as quickly as possible through the court.”

A spokeswoman from Hertsmere Council said: “We are working with the police and land owner to resolve this situation as soon as possible. Environmental health officers witnessed fly-tipping from a vehicle so the police seized the vehicle.  Further investigations are ongoing.”