There are several factual inaccuracies made by Chief Inspector Steve O'Rourke in his letter (Opinion, September 8) which need correcting.

I'd also like to challenge the Sussex Police interpretation of DETR and local authority guidelines on what constitutes nuisance in relation to travellers' raves.

Although he says the police took action to ensure music volumes were kept at a reasonable level, resulting in just a single complaint, I personally rang the police three times to complain and request intervention. I know many others also called.

The local community is pretty liberal and transient visitors are not automatically harassed and hounded out.

However, when local people realised the scale of the event planned by the travellers at the start of the last Bank Holiday of the year - including a marquee and all the paraphernalia to operate a very organised rave - they became rightly concerned.

When the rave continued virtually non-stop for 36 hours (not the 18 hours originally reported), we believed we could call on the due process of law to protect and defend our rights.

I was advised the Department of the Environment had been alerted and was on site, but when I called I was told it could not enforce any order without a minimum of 50 riot police in support.

It was also not true those attending were almost exclusively travellers having a private party.

From what I observed, the rave was a professionally-arranged event. Masses of non-traveller vehicles congregated in the adjacent roads and many of the scores of new traveller vehicles which arrived to attend the rave are still there, having increased the traveller population on the Tye some twofold.

Telscombe Tye is an area of Sussex Downland designated an area of outstanding natural beauty. It was purchased by the local community to protect it. We are already in dispute with Southern Water, who want to purchase a chunk for industrial development.

Had the travellers been using the Tye as a stopping-off point on their travels, I doubt there would have been any problem.

Instead, the liberal attitude of the police has only served to encourage a deluge of travellers. They are now spread out from the coast road right across the Tye. It will be interesting to observe how the police enforce the notice to quit order.

-Christine Coombes, Springfield Avenue, Telscombe Cliffs