TRAVELLERS have taken over the car park at a Burnley hotel.

Around 12 caravans and Ford Transit vans set up camp outside the Travelodge, in Barracks Road.

Hotel bosses said the convoy was ‘affecting day-to-day business’. Police have been called out twice since the group of travellers arrived from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on Wednesday afternoon.

A spokesman said they were called by Travelodge staff at 1.52pm on Wednesday and, at the time, there were four caravans and four transit vans.

On Thursday police were again called out and found 10 caravans on the car park.

Officers attended but no action was taken after the travellers said they were going to leave the site tomorrow.

But one of the group told the Lancashire Telegraph they had no intention of leaving the site soon.

The blonde woman, in her 30s with a broad Irish accent, said: “We don’t know where we’re going next. We’re just going to wait until they kick us off and go wherever the wind takes us.”

Children, some aged around five, could be seen kicking a fence that separates the hotel from the disused Lookers garage nearby yesterday.

Drivers on Barracks Road looked on in shock as the children threw stones at each another in the car park, just yards from the busy road.

A Travelodge spokesperson said: “A group of travellers is occupying part of our Burnley Travelodge hotel car park.

“Their residence is affecting our day-to-day business and as a result we are working very closely with the local authorities to resolve this matter.

“In the meantime the hotel is operating as normal and we are making every endeavour to ensure our customers have a good stay whilst they are with us.”

The hotel chain leases the land from an unknown private owner.

A Burnley Council spokesman said: “Our officers were due to visit the site on Friday afternoon. It is privately owned land so we will then discuss with the land owners how to move them on.”

A paramedic from the North West Ambulance Service, which uses the car park as a base because of its proximity to the M65 motorway, said the group hadn’t caused him any problems.

He said: “They’ve been very friendly, a few of them were over asking me about the car and they certainly haven’t done me any harm.”