NEW figures have shown Maldon is in the top seven locations for visiting travellers in the county.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government released statistics which showed the number of travellers’ caravans found in each major council-run area in Essex.

Maldon came in seventh with 80 caravans in January this year.

This number is however a steady decrease from last year, which saw 96 caravans, while there were 103 the year before.

This places it in the middle of the chart, with Basildon having the most caravans this January and Southend-on-Sea having none.

There are only two caravan sites in the district, the Wood Corner site in Woodham Walter and the Brickhouse Road site in Tolleshunt Major.

In total, there are 4,409 caravan pitches across England.

Nationally, the total number of traveller caravans in England has risen from 17,813 in January 2009 to 22,662 in January 2019, an increase of 27 per cent, the figures show.

However this increase has not been consistent year-on-year.

Overall, the January 2019 count indicated 88 per cent of traveller caravans in England were on authorised land and 12 per cent were on unauthorised land.

The traveller caravan count has taken place twice a year since January 1979.