Councils ‘should provide land’ for Travellers

A report calls for councils to provide more land for Gypsies and Travellers, rather than bowing to local objections. The research for the Race Equality Foundation found that 90 per cent of planning applications for Traveller sites are turned down at the first hearing, and it costs £6 million a year to evict those who aren’t legally camped. However, one square mile of land would provide legal pitches for the 5,000 families currently living on unauthorised sites.