A family of travellers were thrown off the land they have camped on for 14 years after a tense three-hour standoff with council officials and sheriff officers.
Police were called to the plot of ground near Keith as attempts were made to persuade the McPhees to move – for their own safety.
The local authority says the former rubbish dump is “highly toxic” and it would have been failing in its duty of care if it had not acted.
The local authority had a decree for eviction granted at Elgin Sheriff Court earlier this month.
Since then, the site had been partially cleared of several caravans and lorries, along with other valuables.
Tempers flared yesterday morning between the council’s unauthorised encampments officer Stephen Calder and Alexander and Mark McPhee and police were called.
A recovery lorry contracted by the local authority was called in to remove three remaining disused caravans at about noon.
And the travellers – who are adamant there has not been a thorough enough investigation to prove the land is hazardous – slashed the tyres of the departing trailers in an act of protest.
The situation threatened to boil over again and police returned when a local haulage company was asked to blockade the main roads through the site and an adjacent picnic area.
The McPhees argued that the 14 cement blocks unfairly denied them access to two caravans parked below the camp, an area they say is not part of the eviction decree map.
Alexander McPhee told police: “Where my caravan is is not on the court papers, so they should be giving us another date in court for the picnic area.”
After officers left, he said: “We have been fair with the council and we are not stopping them coming in here.
“We are asking if that lower road can be left open so we can get in and out with stuff. That is a picnic area on right of way, it is nothing to do with here and it has never been tested.
“It is not contaminated ground down there.
“But they are blocking the main road at the bottom.
“We are doing nobody any harm up here. We sit here at night in the dark, using power from a generator.
“And we said from day one that if they found us a bit of ground, we would work with them and we would move.
“But they turn up here and they treat us like dogs and animals.”
Mark McPhee added: “Stephen Calder is looking to move us to score brownie points. He has caused all this commotion and cost the council a phenomenal bill.
“If we were just left on our own and they did it the right way, we would have been tidied up and away in a couple of weeks.”
Things eventually ended peacefully as the McPhees left the site to make further contact with their lawyer, leaving workmen to position the final boulders over the main entrance to the camp.
A spokesman for the council said last night: “We are pleased that everything went smoothly.
“The council simply could not ignore the risk to the health of those who had been occupying the site and it was on that basis that the eviction order was sought from the court.”