Cash for regional traveller sites

The assembly is hoping more official sites will be built

More travellers sites will be built in the East Midlands after a cash injection from the government.

The East Midlands Assembly said the £6.2m will be used to build new sites and refurbish existing ones.

There are 1,100 gypsy and traveller caravans in the East Midlands, but 300 of them are on unauthorised sites, an assembly spokesman said.

Local councils will be asked to bid for a share of the money depending on how many sites are needed in their area.

The assembly is working with district councils to draw up an overall regional plan for accommodation for travellers and gypsies, assembly spokesman Graham Bennett told BBC's Politics Show on Sunday.

The government needs to give them sites and has to watch where they are going Tim Hollis, Derbyshire farmer

But Councillor Joyce Saunders, of Derbyshire County Council, said it is sometimes difficult to find "a suitable location" for the caravans as residents "don't want us to put a site near them".

The regional assembly is lobbying the government to develop a contract between travellers and gypsies and local authorities.

The contract would specify that anyone who rents an official pitch would have to leave it in a reasonable condition.

Derbyshire farmer Tim Hollis, who recently had a dispute with some travellers who were staying on his land, said the government needs to monitor their movement more closely.

"The government needs to give them sites and has to watch where they are going," he said.

Siobhan Spencer, of the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, agreed that the government needs to provide more pitches.

She said at least 70 pitches are needed for travellers and gypsies in south Derbyshire and north Leicestershire.