Travellers have set up camp at a Shropshire hotel which has fallen into disrepair since going up for sale more than two years ago.

About five caravans have moved on to the car park of the former Lea Manor Hotel, Albrighton, on the A464 Telford to Wolverhampton Road.

Council chiefs today pledged to evict the group from the hotel site, which closed in 2008.

Albrighton councillor Malcolm Pate, who is also chairman of Shropshire Council, said: “They’ve only just arrived over the last few days and we shall be taking action to get them removed.

“They’ve no right being there. It’s a private property.”

He said: “Whether they are just passing through, I don’t know, but they can’t stay there. There are planning laws which dictate where travellers can go and they can’t just go where they want.”

Alan Jacques, agency surveyor with the Midland firm, Towler Shaw Roberts, which is in charge of the site, said today: “I’ve had three or four phone calls from locals about it.

“I think arrangements have been made to move them on from the site.

“There have already been some problems with vandalism at the site and this latest incident certainly won’t help.”

The 16-bedroom hotel is empty but agents Towler Shaw Roberts revealed a planning application had been submitted to transform it for business use.