Caravans believed to belong to travellers have arrived in Witham this morning (February 26).

Eyewitnesses say up to ten caravans drove onto land off Armond Road at around 9.30am.

It comes after a group of 12 caravans which were parked in a car park at Freeport Braintree shopping outlet were moved on this morning.

Centre manager Josef O’Sullivan said: “The group vacated the car park this morning after enforcement officers attended yesterday.

“We have a number of barriers installed across the car park to mitigate vehicles accessing some areas during out of hours and continue to work closely with local authorities in such instances.”

The caravans had been stationed in the car park for more than 24 hours having arrived sometime around 5pm on Sunday.

Shoppers were told it was business as usual yesterday while discussions between Freeport, police and caravan owners took place.

A spokesman for Essex Police said the force had been monitoring the situation closely but no criminal offences had been committed.