THE controversial removal of a Pokémon hotspot from a Mistley war memorial has been blamed on complaining residents fed up with poor parking and litter.

A number of residents have questioned the use of a war memorial as a Pokestop, a real-world meeting point for the Pokémon Go mobile phone game.

It has seen large crowds of players gathering at the site to catch rare “virtual” monsters.

Following complaints to the game’s developer, Niantic, the memorial, opposite Mistley Towers, has been removed from the game.

The parish council has now said this is due to a combination of residents and Tendring Council contacting the developer.

However, Nigel Brown, Tendring Council’ s communications manager, said the district council had not had any involvement in getting the site removed.

“Our only involvement in this issue was to respond to requests for help over the parking problems being caused at the site for a resident and others using the nearby clinic,” he said.

Alan Coley, district councillor for Mistley, said: “No waiting cones have been put down as there have been times when people couldn’t access their drives and the clinic – this has helped the situation.

“I have heard from quite a number of residents and I would stress not completely in a negative way.

“They all started off by saying in the main it is not a problem and the players are welcome.

“I have not had anything to do with the removal of the site from the game at all, in fact I was not interested in that as a solution.”

But players have hit back against the removal.

Dee Peacock, of Hunter Drive, Lawford, said: “My partner is a former service-man and thinks it is a welcome gesture that the war memorial is actually visited and observed by people on a regular basis as so many are left to obscurity.

“Why would the residents seek to deny such beautiful local monuments of national note to those who would wish to see them?”