THE travellers who caused disruption to Simmons Park car park last week paid to remove any rubbish left behind and left the site clean according to Okehampton Town Council.

Eight caravans arrived in the car park on Monday, November 17 at around 4.30pm. Caravans were parked across bays, disrupting access to members of the public.

The travellers also disrupted a visit from the NHS mobile eye clinic on November 18.

The large clinic van uses the car park as a base during visits to Okehampton, providing specialist care to glaucoma patients in the town and removing their need to travel to Exeter for an appointment.

By Sunday, the travelling contingent had left completely.

Cllr Christine Marsh, chair of the council's parks committee responsible for the car park, said: 'In the end, they were very courteous. When the town clerk and I went down to speak to them, they paid to remove any rubbish they had made and paid for their caravans to be there.

'When they left, they left the site clean. It could have been a lot worse, they could have trashed the place. Out of a lot of these types of experiences, it ended up much better than many.

'Yes they caused some inconvenience and people walking through may have felt vulnerable. But other cars parked in the spaces between the caravans and they were not intimidating.

'Travellers have a very negative stereotype, but in this instance it worked out fine in the end.'