DESPERATE parish leaders in Pilning are threatening to sue South Gloucestershire Council for failing to take action over an illicit traveller site on Green Belt land in the village.

They are prepared to take the council to court if by next Monday it has still not come up with a plan of action for returning the Bank Road site to a green field.

"This has been going on for long enough and we're not prepared to put it with any longer," said Pilning and Severn Beach Parish Council chairman Ivor Humphries.

"We've now instructed our own solicitors and they have written to the council setting a deadline. We've been warned that taking them to court could cost £30,000 but we have a mandate for this and if necessary we shall precept for the money.

"We've even had people offering to donate money towards the legal costs. That's how desperate they feel about the situation.

"We met council officers at the site last November and we were assured that something was being done at last. But since then we've heard nothing from them whatsover and it's just dragging on an on.

"This whole saga has been dragging on since the early 1990s and you can't blame people in the village for losing patience. They have come to the end of their tether.

"I spokes to someone recently who was so fed up that he was selling up and leaving the village."

The Bank Road land, close to the parish cemetery,is owned by a travelling family and is adjacent to another site which has permission for five caravans.

When the Gazette visited the site this week, it was unoccupied and strewn with litter and other detritis including a derelict touring caravan lying on its side.

Mr Humphries said the number of caravans on the land had varied over the last few months. "You just don't know when they are going to come back and how many of them there's going to be," he said. "There's been as many as 20 caravans there."

Last year residents told a parish council meeting they felt "virtually under siege" because of the presence of the travellers. They also claimed there had been an explosion of crime and intimidation in the village.

It is now two years since government development watchdogs scuppered plans by a travelling family to set up permanent camp on the land.

A planning inspector upheld South Gloucestershire Council's decision to refuse permission for the siting of caravans along with two amenity blocks, cesspits, boundary fencing and gravel surfacing.

The land should have been cleared of caravan hard standings and the grass reinstated - but today it remains in the same condition.

South Gloucestershire Council spokesman Matthew Rees said: "There has been a breach of the conditions on the land at Bank Road in Pilning and the council has been preparing to take enforcement action to resolve the issue.

"The use of the enforcement powers, which are discretionary, can only be used once the council is sure that it is reasonable and appropriate to do so. Consideration has been given to those affected by the proposed course of action as well as the public interest.

"We have been in contact with the parish council and informed them that we have made this issue a priority for our enforcement team."