THOUSANDS of pounds of taxpayers money will be spent clearing-up after contractors set-up camp on public land.

Wigan Council says in the past five weeks, five separate, unauthorised camps were set-up within the borough.

Gangs of itinerant workers engaged in driveway, paving, roofing and tree cutting settled at Pennington Flash Country Park and at Aspull Common in Lowton. And as we went to press moves were being made by Wigan Council to evict others from Hesketh Meadow at Lowton.

A staggering 25 tonnes of rubbish and waste was left behind after the four day encampment on the main car park at Pennington Flash.

Parks and Countryside manager Malcolm Russell said: "The majority of rubbish is work-related such as unwanted tarmac, broken flags and tree stumps -- and a fair amount of human waste.

"We estimate it will cost about £1,500 to move this waste plus extra costs for the environmental damage.

"People have asked what we are doing about these problems, we are doing all we can. There is a legal process to follow and it takes an miniumum of four days to apply for a Court order to move them on."

A police spokesman said: "We are behind the council all the way. There are permanent encampments that travellers can apply to stay at. We are struck by the inconsiderate nature of some of the behaviour we have seen. Clearly some of these people give no thought to their surroundings or the feelings of their host communities."

Lightshaw's Community Action Party leader Cllr Peter Franzen feels the tougher policing is the key.

"If these people are breaking the law the Police have powers to deal with them. There are vehicles without tax, people are urinating and defecating in public in full view of local residents. There are examples of criminal and ant-social behaviour carried out with apparent impunity.

"It appears the Wigan area is seen as a soft touch. We need the Police to get tough. The softly, softly approach is not acceptable.

"The message to people is 'don't employ them, then perhaps the attraction of this area will disappear."