Travellers who bulldozed and concreted over the green belt to set up an illegal encampment have been told to pay £15,000 towards cleaning up their mess.
The group, who laid down 6,000 tonnes of hardcore, has been told to abandon the site on Friendless Lane in Flamstead, Hertfordshire.
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In July, deputy high court judge Christopher Kennedy ruled in favour of Dacorum Borough Council after it took legal action in an effort to clear the area.
The travellers were given a deadline of August 24 to leave, and have since “been leaving steadily over the last week”, Billy Pither, the chairman of Flamstead Parish Council said.
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He added that the council had seen drone footage of the “very last caravan leaving”, but a few vehicles and containers were still kicking around the site, he told the BBC.
The council took legal action against more than 20 named respondents and “persons unknown” to prevent them living on the illegally developed land.
The families applied for retrospective planning permission to establish a “gypsy site”, as lawyers argued the land should be considered “grey belt” land, not green belt.
Legal representatives also claimed that “cultural context” needed to be understood because the travellers considered the caravans their home.
Mr Kennedy, making his judgement at the Royal Courts of Justice, said his injunction had been “just and proportionate”, and ordered the travellers to pay £15,000 towards the council’s legal bill and to clean-up the site.
But the site is still a “mess”, Mr Pither said, saying in a statement it had been “been left in a condition which will need to be addressed”.
“It’s going to take a lot of diggers and lorries to remove that, but hardcore has a value, so groundworks contractors would probably be willing to remove it,” he added.
The responsibility remains with the travellers to revert the land back to a grazing site and to remove “everything they put on the site, which includes drainage and septic tanks,” Mr Pither said.
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The expulsion of travellers from the Flamstead site comes as Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is sparking fears of a surge in traveller sites across England by softening planning rules to remove powers from local councils.
Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly said the Tories would change the law to end the “two-tier planning system” which encourages travellers to “build first and apply for planning permission later”.
Relaxing planning rules could make it easier for illegal traveller sites to be established, the Tories said – but Ms Rayner said those claims were “fake news”.
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, said: “I welcome the news that the site in Friendless Lane is now being vacated. I know this has been a matter of significant concern for local residents.”
And the leader of Dacorum Borough Council, Sally Symington, said: “We welcome the compliance with the injunction to date.
“It was granted to protect the land which is part of the Chiltern National Landscape and ensure its lawful use.
“The council will monitor the situation and will continue to liaise with Flamstead Parish Council and residents.”
A Housing Ministry spokesman has previously said: “The Government is cracking down on illegal traveller sites and it is completely misleading to suggest otherwise.
“Our new planning rules explicitly tackle any potential environmental damage and transport impacts, and make it harder for people to get retrospective permission for development that were built without approval.”
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