A traveller has lost his battle with North Somerset Council over its planning policy for gypsy sites.

Mark Small said the council's local plan for traveller sites, adopted in 2007, failed to identify and allocate land.

Mr Small, who lives on a site with his family, challenged the council because he felt it failed to find land for gypsy sites – nine years after a public enquiry criticised the authority's policy.

The local plan requires gypsy applicants for planning permission to overcome hurdles of six criteria.

These include having to demonstrate an identified need for a site in North Somerset and that the site would not "unacceptably prejudice" neighbours.

Mr Small's case went before top planning judge Justice Jeremy Sullivan, but he backed the council and rejected the challenge.

Judge Sullivan said a planning inspector consulted on the plan was aware the shortcomings were criteria-based rather than site-specific.

But he said the inspector was unable on the evidence before him to recommend specific locations for gypsy sites.

Faced with that problem, the inspector recommended the council carry out an assessment of demand and produce a development plan in relation to the sites required.

The judge said this was a "reasonable solution to a practical problem".

He said quashing the policy, forcing the council to start from scratch, would serve no useful purpose to either Mr Small or other gypsies in the area.

Mr Small believed he had a strong case because the 2007 policy represented a failure in the wake of a 1999 Examination in Public (EiP) – before the Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Joint Replacement Structure Plan was set up.

The EiP panel found the four councils' criteria-based policies failed to meet gypsies' accommodation needs.

It said each authority should set out a strategy that would ensure they assisted gypsies to find suitable sites.

The panel also said suitable sites should be identified in local plans and be close to services and facilities.

These included schools and good access to main roads, The sites, wherever possible, were also to be suitable for mixed residential and business uses.

The councils put in place a structure plan, but this was quashed in 2003 by the Court of Appeal because the authorities failed to follow the EiP's recommendation.

The appeal court said the plan was instead still following a criteria-based approach to gypsy site provision.

Mr Small said North Somerset Council took no action even after the ruling.