TRAVELLERS have caused a right royal stink by setting up on a field at Prince Charles’s model development at Poundbury.

Residents have been left furious after four caravans and a number of cars arrived on The Great Field.

There are understood to be at least a dozen people, including children, living on the site which is opposite homes in Peverell Avenue East.

The Great Field will be the venue for a community fun day organised by Dorchester Football Club on Sunday, May 29.

The travellers, who arrived from Paignton in Devon on Monday evening, have told officials they will be gone by Sunday.

But residents are not happy and fear the site will be left in a mess.

Landowner The Duchy of Cornwall has given the travellers one week to leave but Poundbury residents said if it was up to them, they would have asked the travellers to vacate the field immediately.

Margaret Morrissey, the chairman of the Poundbury Residents’ Association, said she would have told them to ‘get out now.’ She said: “We all understand travellers have a right to designated sites, but they do not have a right to plonk themselves down on any piece of land they fancy.

“The travellers are very lucky because the Duchy will deal with this in a very kind and understanding way.

“I don’t think I’d be as kind and generous.

“I wouldn’t say: ‘Stay for a week then totter on’. I’d say: ‘Get out now’. I’m furious.”

Mrs Morrissey, 67, added: “It’s very easy to present yourself as an underdog, saying ‘those people’ that have everything want us out and don’t care about us.

“But in actual fact, a lot of ‘those people’ do and that’s why local authorities have made sure there are sites that travellers can settle on.

“I feel very cross about it.”

Resident Margaret Whitton of Peverell Avenue East, said: “Last time travellers were here about two years ago they didn’t cause us any harm but they left an awful lot of mess and it wasn’t very nice.

“We can see the field from our house – I feel angry when they just turn up because we never know if we’ll have any trouble.”

David Taylor, a Poundbury resident and Dorchester Town councillor, said he could understand why residents are angry.

He said: “It’s understandable that the residents of Poundbury are concerned and possibly angry at the sudden arrival of the travellers.

“I am relieved to hear that the Duchy has given them a week to leave and it will be unfortunate if they do not go.”

A Dorset County Council spokesman said the travellers have informed them they would leave by Sunday.

He said: “We are happy for them to stay until then because they have agreed to leave and they are not acting as a threat or causing any problems.

“They seem fairly co-operative and we are confident they will stick to that.”

A spokesman for Dorset Police confirmed officers attended the field and advised the travellers that it is ‘not a suitable location for their encampment.’ When approached by the Echo, the travellers on the site declined to comment.

A spokesman for Clarence House – Prince Charles’s official residence – did not wish to comment.