ROAD protesters face legal action to force them off land being lined up for Weymouth's relief road.

Officers at Dorset County Council are threatening to evict the camp from a patch of land near the Manor Road roundabout.

The eco-warriors moved to the council-owned land - which will form part of a spur road in the project - from a plot inside nearby Two Mile Coppice after being told they could be harming rare bats.

Now the council is set to take legal action to evict the protesters after visiting the camp to see how well dug in they were.

Rod Turner, road project manager, said: "If they fail to heed our requests to vacate the land then legal proceedings will be taken.

"We want to give them a clear message that the council will not tolerate illegal occupation of the land."

He added that the protesters were enlisting support nationwide through the Internet and that the council did not want to spend more taxpayers' money than was necessary.

Mr Turner has paid visits to the camp to see how far they have progressed with building tree houses and tunnels.

Dorset County Council aims to build the £54.6 million Orange Route relief road from the Manor Road Roundabout through a section of Two Mile Coppice next to the railway line through Littlemoor, past Bincombe and up to the Ridgeway. The protesters are on land that will be part of a connecting road from the Manor Road roundabout to a new roundabout and link to a park and ride on the disused Lodmoor tip.

The protesters have vowed to stay and fight the scheme for as long as it takes, but Mr Turner said the council is considering the timing and costs of legal action to move them out.

The vow comes after the Woodland Trust allowed council staff into Two Mile Coppice to carry out tests on ground conditions and water levels.

The council threatened to take legal action against the charity unless its workers were allowed onto the site.

It had statutory powers to carry out surveying work as the highways authority promoting the scheme, but the Woodland Trust sought more time because road protesters in the coppice had forced a delay of a bat survey.