Councils face travellers decision

Nearly a quarter of travellers in the east live on unauthorised sites

Nearly 1,200 new Gypsy and traveller caravan pitches are needed in the East of England over the next four years, a regional assembly report has revealed.

The report says that 99 new pitches are needed in Beds, 383 in Cambs, 388 in Essex, 115 in Herts, 92 in Norfolk and 110 in Suffolk, by 2011.

The East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) says residents and local authorities will be consulted.

A final decision on the proposals must be made by the government by 2009.

Current county residential/transit sites Bedfordshire 5 Cambridgeshire 13 Essex 14 Hertfordshire 11 Norfolk 6 Suffolk 1

Councils will then have to decide how to provide the new pitches.

EERA's regional planning panel vice-chair Roy Davis said they had "carefully considered" the responses to public consultation, information from local authorities and independent research.

"We believe our recommendation is a realistic assessment of the need for new caravan pitches up to 2011," he said.

One of the report's aims was to tackle the problem of unauthorised sites.

When the review of traveller sites was proposed, EERA said about a quarter of England's travelling families lived in the east of the country yet the area had only 16% of the official sites.

There are currently 50 local authority sites in the East with the locations and environment of many of these sites deemed to be poor, according to experts.

The review was undertaken because of government planning policy which calls for the shortfall of sites to be addressed.

It stated that provision for caravan sites should be included in regional planning documents just as provision is made for new housing.