Foreign workers living in a former pig sty owned by Fenland Council have been ordered to leave ahead of its demolition on Monday.

Cambs Times: New Bridge Lane, Out buildings where rough sleepers are living. Picture: Steve Williams.New Bridge Lane, Out buildings where rough sleepers are living. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Up to six Eastern Europeans – including three women- have set up a make shift home in the Newbridge Lane, Wisbech, pig sty for the past year.

But now Fenland Council, who own both the buildings and adjoining land, have given them their marching orders.

“We served an eviction notice and the tenants have gone,” said a council spokesman. The spokesman was unable to say for how long the pig sty and surrounding land had been owned by the council.

Neighbour Victor Britain, 77, of New Bridge Lane, Wisbech, alerted Fenland District Council about rough sleepers living in the pigsty last month.

He said: “I feel sorry for the people who have been living there. No one should have to live like that.

“They have probably been exploited and kicked out of their previous homes. “Desperate people do desperate things.

“But after a year, enough is enough. I’m not prepared to put up with it any longer.

“They come and go at all hours of day and night and there have been altercations just outside my living room window.

“There are empty vodka bottles everywhere. When they go past the bungalow it causes my dogs to bark.”

Mr Britain has a letter from Sarah Gove, housing and communities’ manager, in which she accepted it was “a frustrating situation” to be living next door to the pig sty.

She told him officers and police had visited the site on several occasions but “despite the clear evidence of bedding and belongings and reports from you” no tenants had been found.

Her letter, dated January 14, promised to continue to the visit at different times “in order to engage with the individuals and offer alternative solutions to rough sleeping”.

Another neighbour, Bruce Bell, of New Bridge Lane, expressed sadness for the plight of the rough sleepers.

He said: “The place was not fit for pigs, let alone people. Hopefully the authorities find somewhere decent for them to live.”