TRAVELLERS camping on parkland next to sheltered housing have apologised to locals upset about their new neighbours.

Council officers yesterday served a seven-day eviction notice after 18 families arrived at the site off Pemberley Road, in Acocks Green, last Friday.

Opposite live 300 elderly and disabled people who said the make-shift camp had “destroyed” the land and was “intimidating” to pass by.

Traveller John Ward, aged 38, said: “We are sorry if we’re causing any inconvenience. We’d rather be away, we were just passing and we seen it.

“We could be in Leeds in a few weeks and Bradford.”

The council notice warned: “If you fail to vacate the land within seven days, legal/further action will be taken.”