A GROUP of travellers has sparked more outrage - after human excrement was found on a war memorial in Bradford.

Councillor David Warburton said faeces was dotted around the small patch of land off Cleckheaton Road, Low Moor - including on the Cenotaph itself - where travellers set up camp for five days.

He branded the group's actions as "disgusting" and said it would mean unnecessary spending for Bradford Council and taxpayers on blocking the site off for the future.

The travellers - a mixture of adults and children - arrived at the site last Wednesday evening. The following day, one of them told the Telegraph & Argus that he did not know they were on a war memorial. He apologised and vowed to move on by the end of the same day.

However, the group did not move on until very early today - and they left a mess behind when they did go.

Cllr Warburton (Lab, Wyke) said: "It is human excrement - it is on the monument and in the bushes. The smell is horrendous - it is awful.

"I think it is absolutely disgusting. Animals wouldn't do it. I cannot repeat some of the words I am thinking. They have no morals at all.

"We have had lots of calls and emails about it. People think it is absolutely disgusting."

He added: "We do work around the ward and could use our funding better - we should not have to find a way to protect this site.

"It will be a massive cost to the Council and to taxpayers."

Jeffrey Long, a member of the Bradford Central branch of the Royal British Legion, said: "I would have them flogged. It is an outrage. It is desecration of a memorial to people who died to protect people like them.

"I am sure there are some good travellers, but some just make a mess of everything they do and have no respect for anybody."

He added: "We need these travellers to turn up on the Prime Minister's doorstep - that might get the laws changed."

One local said: "It shows what those travellers think of the men who fought and died so they could have the freedom to desecrate their memory."

Cllr Warburton said a cleaning team from Bradford Council would be clearing up at the site as soon as possible.

The Council is involved in legal action to remove groups of travellers from other parts of Bradford.

A group removed some large concrete blocks to get on to the site of the Buck Lane business park in Baildon.

And a Clayton Primary School in Bradford was forced to postpone its summer fete last Saturday until September after a separate group of travellers set up camp on the field where it was going to be held.

John Major, Bradford Council's assistant director for environmental health and regulatory services, has pledged the authority is starting the court process as quickly as possible to obtain a possession orders to evict travellers from its land but that can take up to ten days.