A design company may have to close after 27 years in business because of the mess squatters leave on its doorstep.

Used nappies and human excrement are among the rubbish left on the site of Design Services at Seafire Close, Clifton Moor.

Malcolm Harrison, managing director, told today how he was hospitalised following a nervous breakdown caused by the stress of the "bomb-site" squatters made of his company car park.

He believes the company, whose clients include Nestl, has lost about £200,000 over the last four years as clients refuse to visit his offices.

The departing caravans have frequently left a legacy of unpleasant waste which has turned Mr Harrison's site into a rubbish dump and he fears the business will have to close in the next 12 months because of the problems.

Mr Harrison, 65, is angry about the regular visits of the travellers who park on land by his business around every three weeks.

"This morning I had to clear up human excrement from a corridor inside our offices," he told the Evening Press.

"There are old cookers, used nappies, discarded clothes, foliage and general food waste."

The rubbish has brought rat infestations to the area and clients and staff refuse to park their cars near the building for fear of damage by squatters' children.

Mr Harrison has spent £3,000 in the past two years repairing the repeatedly damaged company sign and an another £9,000 cleaning up the mess that has been made.

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "We have been called in on a number of times on an agency basis to clean this area but the money for this has come from the landowners and not from the public purse.

"In terms of our general policy the council does provide three separate travellers' sites with a total of 52 pitches and these are currently full.

"We are responsible for taking action to get travellers to move on from our land or sections of the council-run highway and we will act where there are complaints of nuisance or there is a danger to other users of the highway."

Julian Pheby, a trustee at the Travellers' Trust, said: "We have to be careful not to unfairly tar the whole community after the wrong-doing of a small minority.

"Those in the travelling community who live on settled sites have a good relationship with the local authorities."