GIPSIES deny their campsite is sinking into the mud and say they will fight to the bitter end to stay in Newent.

Travellers living in Southend Lane say the field is not flooding and perfect for their needs.

So instead of quitting in January 2012 when their temporary planning permission runs out, they are planning to submit another application.

This will mean residents and council officials who are objecting to the site will have to go through the whole lengthy process again.

The travellers decided to speak out amid reports that they had been shipping in lorry loads of stone to stop the infrastructure sinking into the mud.

A spokesman, who did not want to named, denied the field is unsuitable for a caravan site because it is too wet to live on and says the stone is needed because they cannot tarmac the road.

The father-of-four says stone is needed for routine maintenance on the site which has been transformed and rechristened The Stables since 13 families moved in over the May bank holiday last year.

"The stone was to make the road cleaner and fill in the potholes," he said. "We are not just going to let it go to rack and ruin.

"We are not sinking and we are not putting up fences and lighting we have not got planning permission for.

"Everything you see, we have been planning for."

Worried residents who have objected to the site, say the more the gipsies make themselves at home, the harder it will be for them to leave or be evicted.

They have transformed the field which now has 13, neat, fenced-off pitches containing caravans and sheds with electricity and running water.

The Forest of Dean District Council turned down the travellers' planning application for the land.

After a bitter public inquiry, a Government inspector gave the travellers temporary permission to stay until January 2012.

Asked if they were expecting to hitch up their caravans and leave after the deadline, he said: "No, we will apply for planning and go through the whole procedure again.

"It boils down to the fact that they have got to provide 26 pitches in the Forest of Dean area for gipsies and travellers and they haven't.

"It's not the council's fault. They have got to find somewhere appropriate for us to go within walking distance of schools, shops, bus stops and doctors."

His wife claims many local residents are friendly to the travellers and only a minority are against them.

"We are not hiding nought, we are entitled to a place to live," she said. "We are not bad people and we get no bother from the people in the village.

"We pay our council tax the same as everybody else. We are not asking for freebies and we are not doing anything illegal.

"We just want to be here, on our own land, that's it."

Her husband added: "We will fight to the end. This is home now."