They're often accused of creating a mess, but Travellers who set up camp on a Dudley football pitch got out a lawnmower and left the site in a better condition than they found it.

Travellers who parked caravans at a site near Dudley's Lister Road last May mowed the grass, cleaned up their litter and even asked the local council for Portakabin toilets when they arrived.

MP Mike Wood told MPs about the Traveller camp in a House of Commons debate.

Many other MPs told horror stories about Travellers creating a mess or damaging property in their constituencies.

But Mr Wood, Conservative MP for Dudley South, said: "Over the past three summers, there have been a number of Traveller camps in Dudley. Some of those camps, although unauthorised, have caused very little damage or disruption.

"Indeed, at least one group of travellers from Scandinavia tidied up after themselves, mowed the grass, and probably left the pitch in a better condition than that in which they had found it."

However, the MP also warned said that other groups of Travellers had been less considerate.

He told MPs: "There have been illegal incursions in areas including Netherton, Woodside, Wordsley and Kingswinford. There has been defecation and urination on playing pitches and children’s playing areas."

Comments by MPs in the debate sparked controversy.

Warley MP John Spellar (Lab) told the Commons: "The public view of the community will continue to be shaped by the appalling behaviour of the minority, who bring absolute chaos to their own communities."

His comment was condemned by Cassie Marie McDonagh, an Irish Traveller and member of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Women’s Empowerment Network.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, she said: "I’m sorry, what? Can you imagine any MP standing up and intervening like that if it were about any other ethnic group?

"But this is the problem. Too many people still see it as acceptable to be racist towards us Travellers – probably because when they are, nothing is done about it.

"And it is often figures in authority who spread negative stereotypes about us and, to use Spellar’s words, are behaving 'appallingly'."

Government Ministers have agreed to meet West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson to discuss his proposal that groups of Travellers or Gypsies could be banned from the entire West Midlands if they take part in criminal behaviour or set up illegal encampments.