Travellers pitched up outside a village hall have been given 24 hours to leave.

Three caravans and three vehicles set up at Larkfield Village Hall last Thursday, using its car park and adjoining park as a home.

Larkfield and East Malling clerk Val Severn said it has been a "nightmare":

"It has caused disruption because we've lost hirers.

"We made them aware of the encampment and some pulled out of hiring the village hall, that means we've lost the hiring fees.

"There's a great big pile of tree cuttings, when the PCSO asked the encampment about it, they said it wasn't them.

"It's very frustrating, the parish council has paid to try and stop vehicles moving on to fields, but now they're using car parks instead.

"This isn't the first time they've parked up, but this is the most disruptive.

"If the order is served today they have 24 hours to leave, but we're worried where they're going to go next."

Councils have the power to serve an initial notice to vacate land, if this is ignored a council can head to the court for a stronger order.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council served a direction asking the travellers to leave land at midday on Friday.

A spokesperson from TMBC said: "The council’s enforcement officers returned to the site on Monday 4 March to see if the unauthorised occupiers had complied with the council’s direction.

"They had failed to comply with the direction and leave the site, so they were then served with a court summons requiring them to attend court on Wednesday March 6. At the hearing they will have the opportunity to argue why the court should not make an order to remove them, their vehicles and their property from the land."

The council was granted a notice at Medway Magistrates Court this morning.

At 11.35am today, the council served its order demanding all unauthorised occupiers leave within the next 24 hours.

It comes days after travellers were moved off land in Leybourne.

Caravans and vehicles arrived near the town's donkey field, on Castle Way, last Wednesday.

Kent County Council, which owned the land, carried out welfare checks before serving an order for the travellers to move along.

The encampment left the site on Friday.