IT cost almost £500 to clear up the mess left behind by a group of ‘seemingly unpleasant’ travellers, it has been revealed.

A fleet of caravans parked up in Newton Abbot’s Cricketfield car park earlier this month and didn’t move for more than a week.

Hours before a court hearing to turf the unwanted bunch out of the town centre site, the group packed up and hit the road.

Shoppers in the area slammed the travellers for leaving rubbish everywhere and hanging their laundry out across the car park.

Officials at Teignbridge Council, which owns the car park, revealed this week it cost the authority £481 to spruce up the car park in the wake of the travellers departure.

Staff on the clear-up mission collected almost a ton of litter.

A spokesman said: ‘Services across the council worked together to ensure the travellers left as soon as possible and the car park became fully operational again.

‘To clean up all the rubbish left by the travellers, this involved three medium sized vans, a mechanical sweeper and several staff working overtime immediately after the travellers departed on Thursday evening.’

Cllr Phil Bullivant told Monday morning’s council meeting that the travellers had reacted ‘violently’ to approaches made by the authority.

Liberal Democrat leader Gordon Hook told the overview and scrutiny meeting the travellers were a ‘seemingly unpleasant group of human beings.’

The travellers arrived at the car park on March 29 and left on last Thursday.