WHILE the public, press and politicians let off steam, it's the council backroom staff who bear the brunt of dealing with the problems of travellers.

From the moment the caravans arrive to when they move on, council staff in many departments are lumbered with extra, often unpleasant, duties.

At the core of the council response to traveller invasions are the environmental health officers whose first duties are, ironically, to assess the needs of the caravan communities.

Steve Douglas-Beveridge, housing and environmental services manager at Christchurch, where one large band of travellers spent some six weeks camped - at one time quite literally - on the civic offices doorstep, said this year had been the worst in his 20 years experience.

He said: "If they are on council land we have powers to remove them, but first we have to go through certain procedures to make sure their welfare and social needs are sorted out and that means interviewing the occupiers of the caravans.

"Having done that assess-ment we can then serve a direction order which requires them to move their vehicles.

"Most of them don't, so we end up going to court to get a summons served against them. A court date is fixed and we ask the magistrates for a possession order." On average the process takes between seven and 10 days.

But it is not just environmental health and legal departments who have to shoulder the burden.

The presence of travellers in town puts extra strain on town hall switchboards as irate residents phone in.

Highways and parks department staff are diverted from roads and gardens to defend vulnerable sites and clean up afterwards.

Christchurch council chief executive Mike Turvey said: "The obvious costs are only the tip of the iceberg. There are all the hidden costs of officers and staff right across the council who are dealing with the travellers when they should be doing something else.

"Staff have had to work a lot of overtime to make up and they deserve a lot of credit and thanks for that."