COUNCIL bosses last night pledged to evict travellers who have set up camp on Darlington's premier business development.

Travelling families have parked caravans at Morton Palms, on the edge of the town, and delayed a ceremony to mark the completion of the £12m first phase of work.

The first two office blocks at Morton Palms are almost finished, and the developers are understood to have wanted to celebrate the achievement next week. Senior council figures would have been asked to visit the site to play a part in the event.

But the travellers' arrival has put the idea on hold and angered regeneration chiefs, who rate the Morton Palms development as crucial to the revival of the Tees Valley.

A spokesman for developer City and Northern said: "Practical completion happens early next week, but obviously we won't be doing anything to mark it until this situation is resolved."

The latest development has also angered Darlington Borough Council, which recently completed £34,000-worth of work to prevent open spaces being taken over by travellers.

Barriers of earth stretching to half a mile, gates and more than 100 limestone blocks were put in place across the town in October.

The move onto Morton Palms came after sites at Alderman Crooks Park, Red Hall, Allington Way, McMullen Road, Springfield Park and John Dixon Lane were occupied by travellers last year.

Eviction notices were served to many of those who set up home on land used by the public, and Chief Superintendent Michael Banks, of Darlington police, admitted that the town had had an unusually high influx of travellers.

The council has now been forced to take action again and has issued the travellers at Morton Palms with a notice ordering them to leave.

A spokesman said: "There are six travellers' vans on the site and we have served directions on them to leave by Sunday.

"If they do not leave by then, we will have to apply for a magistrates' court order - and that could take a week or two longer."

City and Northern's spokesman said: "This is a construction site and this is clearly not safe. The council is right to take the action it has."

The two buildings provide a total of 71,000sq ft of space. They are expected to house 1,500 workers.

Combined with the £500m Middlehaven development in Middlesbrough, and the £170m Central Park scheme in the Haughton Road area of Darlington, Morton Palms is seen as vital to the region's regeneration.

Last year, more than £400,000 was allocated by Darlington council to build amenity blocks with kitchens, showers, toilets and storage space at a travellers' site in the town.