The police and Redbridge Council are “powerless” to stop a weekly illegal rave that is “like having Glastonbury on your doorstep”, anxious residents claim.

Every weekend this month, the fields behind Royston Gardens, Redbridge, have played host to hundreds of people partying through the night.

The parties seem to begin at around 10pm, when the thumping music begins – a beat that often carries on until early on Sunday evening.

Royston Gardens resident Lisa Triutwein said: “The noise is ridiculous, you can hear it over the A406 so that should tell you how bad it must be – it’s like having Glastonbury on your doorstep.”

When a reporter visited the fields earlier this week, balloons, brightly coloured plastic shot glasses and other paraphenalia littered the grass every few yards, along with empty beer cans and bottles.

“It’s all hi-techno, with hundreds of people off their tits on who knows what,” said Lisa, who claims to have seen men bringing a diesel generator onto the site.

“I’d go over there myself with a can of petrol and shut their generator down, but then the police have told me I’d get done for criminal damage.”

Another resident told the Recorder the problem had been exacerbated by a group of travellers in a separate part of the field, but added that he did not believe they were anything to do with the late night raves.

He said: “We have travellers on one side and this noise on the other – it’s a living hell that’s been going on for weeks.

“The police and the council have been doing nothing to stop it.”

Under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, police officers have the power to order ravers to leave and not return for seven days.

A council spokeswoman said: “Redbridge Council has been working closely with police to coordinate a response to these unauthorised events taking place in the field to the rear of Royston Gardens.

“We advise residents to call 999 when they first see suspected ravers or event organisers setting up so that the police can attend the incident.

“Redbridge Enforcement Officers will respond to calls in relation to noise nuisance, and in the past have approached event organisers about music levels – however, the police have the powers needs to prevent and to stop these events.”

The Metropolitan Police did not respond to a request for comment by the time the Recorder went to press.

The news comes in the same week that two men were shot and another stabbed at what is believed to have been another illegal rave in Romford.