TRAVELLING communities have been upsetting commuters at Dunfermline Town station again this week.

Caravans and motorhomes were spotted at West Fife train stations on Monday morning and commuters took to Twitter to show their anger for taking up precious car-parking spaces that are already hard to come by.

Fife Council said that it would be serving the travellers with an eviction notice on Tuesday to the station’s large car park off Woodmill Street.

Gavin Smith, housing service manager, said: "We're taking court action and we're hoping an eviction notice will be served later today (Tuesday)."

Travellers also set up camp at Dunfermline and Rosyth stations in February and local reports also say they took over land at Inverkeithing station last week.

Councillor Judy Hamilton said it was completely "unacceptable" travellers were disrupting communities but stressed it was only a minority of people that caused problems.

The community and housing services spokesperson said: "The cost of taking enforcement action is expensive for Fife Council.

"However, travellers have a right to travel.

"Most encampments go by unnoticed and are very peaceful.

"I would stress that it's only a minority that trespass on private land."

There are three council-run gypsy traveller encampments in Fife, one of which is Thornton Wood, near Kelty. Travellers staying there have a tenancy agreement with the council and pay council tax.

Cllr Hamilton added: "We have an experienced team that will liaise with travellers in these situations.

"Sometimes we just asked them to leave and they will go.

"They appear for a number of reasons and they are gone again within a few days.

"It's a minority of travellers that cause issues and we always work with them before we take robust action.

"When we do, it's always quite effective because they tend to leave quite swiftly, and the support of the community helps with that.

"It's a nuisance for residents and very disruptive to those who are just trying to get on with their daily business, so we do have to take action."

In 2014, it was revealed that the council had spent £2.6 million dealing with traveller encampments in that last decade.

"I think if there was a solution to the problem then we would have found it," Cllr Hamilton added.

"It's a national problem and at the moment, the Scottish Government is working on policy that all councils will follow.

"We do not want to discriminate against this particular group but they also need to know that it's unacceptable to disrupt communities going about their business and we will take robust action when appropriate."