Travellers who moved on to a field backing on to a residential estate in Burgess Hill are likely to be evicted next week.

Up to 30 caravans moved on to the site in Leylands Road more than two weeks ago.

They are set to be evicted after complaints from residents about noise and pollution.

One neighbour, who lives in Chestnut Close, said: "This has been a nightmare. They have generators running until the early hours of the morning and they drive round on quad bikes as if they were on a rally course.

"They have created a mess, not mentioning the human waste. We have some elderly people living on the street who are terrified at the moment and dare not venture out in to the back garden as they don't want to sit in front of caravans of travellers looking at them."

Mid Sussex District Council officials confirmed they would be going to court for an eviction order on Tuesday and said they were doing everything they could to move the travellers as quickly as possible.

However, Councillor Anne Jones said she was disappointed the council was unable to do anything sooner.

She said: "The noise and pollution has been horrendous. It is absolute hell.

"We have travellers who live in Burgess Hill and they are fine. I think they are as offended as we are that people like this move on to the site and give the rest a bad name.

"If they respected the neighbours I don't think people would object to them being there for a short time.

"I don't care what people's ethnic origins are but we all have to conform to the law. If people want to be travellers then that is fine but there are certain noise and pollution laws they should adhere to."

The travellers said they had nowhere to go and felt victimised by residents.

Traveller Mark Macdonald said: "We do make noise but we are right by a railway line and there is more noise coming from that than there is us.

"We get moved on all the time by the police. Our children can't get education and there are not enough sites anywhere for us. This is how we live."

Another traveller said: "I feel victimised. I see people looking at us and telling lies about us when we have not done anything wrong.

"I would like a nice clean site we could go to."