A list of sites which could be targeted by travellers evicted from one of Europe’s largest illegal camps is being drawn up in Colchester.

Council officers have started work on a “watch list” to prepare for a feared influx of families evicted from Dale Farm in Basildon.

A meeting of the council’s policy development and review panel heard yesterday officers are trying to secure council-owned land from a potential invasion when 90 families at Dale Farm are handed eviction notices on August 31.

Sites on the list include Hilly Fields, Kings Meadow, Lower Castle Park, Cymbeline Meadow and Salary Brook.

The borough’s playing fields are also being viewed as vulnerable as is a 12-plot site in Severalls Lane which has planning permission for a legal travellers site.