Travellers camped at Preston Park in Brighton insist they are doing nothing wrong.

Mother of seven Philomena Conanan, 30, originally from Ireland, says she has had enough of being "shunted about."

She said: "This part of Preston Park is only used as a dog toilet. What are we doing wrong on it?

"We are not that bad. We take our rubbish away when we go. We are human, dogs are animals, but they give more money for dogs than they give for us.

"We get followed around shops and our kids get automatically blamed, like when some kids snapped the branch off a tree at the weekend.

"We love to be free, but we have a terrifying life. They brand us all with the same brush.

"They hide us away from the rest of the world. They tell us to park near a railway or near a dump where people can't see us.

"They should make a place we can stop."

At the top end of the park, there is a smaller group of New Age travellers on a gravel track.

The two groups may both be travellers in the eyes of the law, but they despise each other.

The Irish travellers say the New Age travellers are just rich kids who smoke drugs.

The New Age travellers think the Irish travellers are taking liberties with the land.

Jim Monks describes himself as a New Age traveller and lives in a van on Preston Park.

He grew up in Chiselhurst in Kent and got nine GCSEs. His father is a chartered accountant, his mother is a teacher.

He is a carpenter and decorator and has just finished working on a job at Brighton College.

He said: "I love the freedom but I am not prepared to live on a tip.

"The thing with Horsdean (the official council site) is it's not very hygienic and it's not the place if you've got kids.

"The best solution would be to have certain spaces around the town that we would be allowed to use."