The traveller site in Berkshire where three teenage killers hid after murdering a has been given a multi-million-pound taxpayer-funded upgrade in what councillors have called an "obscene" waste of money.

PC , 28, was killed in August 2019 after responding to a reported burglary in Sulhamstead, Berkshire. After confronting three teenagers, he became entangled in a fleeing quadbike and was dragged along a nearby road.

Henry Long, 19, and 18-year-old Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole hid at the Four Houses Corner site in the village of Ufton Nervert before they were arrested and of manslaughter. The teens were sentenced to between 13 and 16 years behind bars.

Six years on, and a £4.2 million project to renovate the traveller site has nearly been completed, despite outrage at the plans, including from PC Harper's mother, who asked councillors at a planning meeting last year: "If Andrew was your son, would you approve this?"

Shadow Leader of West Berkshire Council Ross McKinnon told the Reading Chronicle that the level of local opposition was also "off the charts".

"Residents are extremely concerned," he added. "The amount of money the council is spending for 18 pitches is extortionate - it's obscene."

Council leader Jeff Brooks said the development was "an opportunity to re-set relations and, despite the tragic past, deliver and manage a site as an exemplar of what a traveller site can be".

Mr Brooks also suggested that the local authority had "no choice" but to go ahead with the scheme. "So long as proposals meet best practice and policy, we effectively had no choice but to redevelop the site, as suitable alternative sites do not exist," he said.

Other objections to the plans included one from Thames Valley Police alongside locals who slammed the revamp as a "kick in the teeth to PC Harper's family and to his widow".

Photos of the near-completed site show the new 14 pitch plot, with space for two caravans each, alongside car parking and an amenity building containing a bathroom, kitchen and dayroom.

The renovated area will be able to house an increased number of travellers, despite concerns over its existing reputation for criminal activity.

Unprecedented police opposition to the plans warned of "serious historic concerns" with law enforcement at the site, which the force said culminated in the death of PC Harper.