Land-grabbing travellers are blitzing Britain, seizing secluded plots of countryside 'illegally' to turn them into vast caravan parks - with a new map today laying bare the scale of the crisis now blighting the nation.
Over the past two months, scores of communities across the UK have seen unauthorised camps springing up in isolated fields, prized rural green belts and protected national parks.
The blight has affected villages and towns in Buckinghamshire, West Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucester, Devon, Worcestershire, Cheshire and in Hampshire's New Forest, MailOnline has found.
Terrified locals say they are 'powerless' to act, with some fearful of reprisals for speaking out against the shameless flouting of strict planning laws.
Meanwhile, furious MPs have lambasted the travellers' brazen tactics, which they say makes a 'mockery' of the building development rules millions of law-abiding Britons are forced to abide by.
