Travellers who set up an unauthorised camp on green belt land have now moved off the site after a High Court injunction.

They had been given a deadline of 24 August to leave Friendless Lane in Flamstead, Hertfordshire.

In July, deputy high court judge Christopher Kennedy ruled in favour of Dacorum Borough Council after it took legal action in a bid to clear the area.

Billy Pither, chairman of Flamstead Parish Council, said: "They have been leaving steadily over the last week and we had drone footage of the very last caravan leaving, so there's a couple of vehicles and a container left but no occupants."

Villagers spotted

The borough council took legal action against more than 20 named respondents and "persons unknown" to stop them living on the land and developing it, after villagers spotted them moving on to the site over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

At the time, families on the site applied for retrospective planning permission to create a "gypsy site".

Lawyers representing the defendants argued the land should be regarded as "grey belt", not green belt, and the travellers' planning application had good prospects of success.

They also said travellers regarded their caravans as their homes and said the cultural context had to be understood.

Kennedy, who made his judgement at the Royal Courts of Justice, said there had been "flagrant" breaches of interim orders and granting a final injunction was "just and proportionate".

Pither said: "We're all amazed and astonished as it's been a tough four months, but we're chuffed to bits that we did as much as we could."

However, he called the land "a mess" as there were "6,000 tonnes of hardcore on it that they [the travellers] brought in".

"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."

The judge ordered the travellers to pay £15,000 towards the council's £51,000 legal bill along with cleaning up the site when they left it.

Pither said: "It's their responsibility to not only remove everything they put on the site, which includes drainage and septic tanks, but also to restore it back to the grazing land it was before."

The BBC has been unable to contact the departing travellers.

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."

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 [previously known as an AONB] and ensure its lawful use.

"The council will monitor the situation and will continue to liaise with Flamstead Parish Council and residents," she said.

Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.