A group of travellers who set up camp at a business park at Gourdon, near Inverbervie, have been ordered to move on.
Council officials acted to have the travellers removed last week after they appeared the previous weekend, and eviction notices were served on Friday.
Companies on the business park had been concerned that the travellers were giving a bad impression to clients and impacting on their businesses.
Peter Benton, project and services manager with RRC Controls, which occupies units at the park, said: “They appeared a week past Saturday. It gives a general downturn to the area, it’s a little scruffy and gives that impression to our clients.
“To date we haven’t had any incidents as such on the property. I think there has been a problem with mess before and this is public land.
“They have been here in previous years, but the council then fenced off the land to try to prevent further incursion. I think that a fence was always going to be ineffective.”
Mr Benton added that the fence had been intact when he left work the night before the travellers set up camp.
Seven caravans were on the site yesterday but workers at the business park said there had previously been nine, with two having already left.
One of the travellers said that they had not cut a hole in the fence and that the mess on the land had been there prior to their arrival.
The female traveller, who would not give her name, said she was homeless and not on council waiting lists to be housed, but was taking steps to do so.
She said that they had been given until Thursday to leave the site. A spokeswoman for Aberdeenshire Council said: “Residents are assured that the council is taking appropriate action.
“Summonses for eviction were served on Friday afternoon and a court hearing will take place later this week to enable the council to formally seek an order to remove travellers from the site at Linton Business Park.”