A family of travellers is squatting on district council land.

The Price family - five adults and nine children - parked their four caravans on disused land between Dark Lane and Woodford Way, in Witney, last Satur- day.

The family, who have a number of dogs, have been in the area for the past two months, staying near Eynsham and Minster Lovell.

They have been living in Oxfordshire on and off for the past six years waiting to get a place at the permanent site for travellers at Standlake.

Oxfordshire County Council traveller liaison officer Mark Gold visited the site on Monday and served the family with a landowner's notice, asking them to leave the land within a reasonable time.

They did not show any signs of moving, so were served with another notice on Thursday asking them to leave by Tuesday.

Gary Brewer, manager of the county's gipsy and traveller service, said the travellers had behaved well, abiding by its code of conduct by not making a mess, leaving rubbish or abusing their neigh- bours.

But people living nearby say they have been disturbed by the noise of their dogs barking.

West Oxfordshire District Council, which owns the land, has received three complaints so far from neigh- bours.

Edgar Calcutt, 86, of Dark Lane, said: "I'm not against the travellers - it's the noise of the dogs barking at night that gets me.

"My bedroom is out the back and I was woken up at 2am, and I have been awake since."

Kathlyn Wrenn, 71, of Dark Lane, said: "I was up at 2.45am because of the dogs barking. They shouldn't be there. It's the dogs barking all day, let alone anything else."

Nora Wise, 82, of Dark Lane, said: "They haven't caused any disturbance to me."

A member of the Price family said: "All we want is to get a place at the Standlake traveller's site where my grand- father is. He's getting on a bit, and we want to be close to him. We have been on the waiting list seven years.

"We don't want to have to be here, being harassed and moved on by the police every few days and getting abuse and nasty looks from people, we want to be on a permanent site. We don't want to go into council housing because we will be living next to druggies, and as soon as people know we are travellers the children will be bullied.

"We want a permanent place to stay in the travelling community. Me and my wife didn't go to school, we can't read or write.

"We want to send our children to school, we want them to have what we didn't get the chance to have.

"We don't steal and we don't make a mess or cause trouble. We are straight people but the way people treat us - it's racist. People won't sell to us and we can't even pay to stay anywhere."