No Minister - we don't want traveller camps in South Glos

Controversial moves to force the creation of more gipsy and traveller sites in South Gloucestershire will be challenged by councillors in a face-to-face meeting with the Communities Minister Shahid Malik.

Leaders of the three political groups on South Gloucestershire Council will travel to London to meet the minister, who was recently reported as saying travelling families were treated differently from "the settled community".

He was quoted as saying: "Fairness does not mean treating people equally – it means addressing the different needs of different people."

The council is under Government orders to have at least 53 new residential and 25 transit pitches for gipsies in the district by 2011.

But the authority claimed there was no longer an "urgent unmet need" for so many places as figures showed a big drop in the number of unauthorised encampments.

From the 103 recorded in 2002-3, the number had fallen to 34 in 2008-9.

The council is currently consulting on potential sites ahead of producing a so-called Development Plan Document, which has led to anger among householders living near plots identified as possible locations for pitches.

Local people believe there is unfairness in the way traveller camps can be established in areas which would otherwise be deemed out of bounds for development.

Councillor Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire's planning chief, said: "A lot of local residents have raised concerns about the planning guidance issued by the Government on gipsy and traveller provision, as well as its specific direction which requires the council to urgently allocate more sites, despite recent evidence that shows the number of unauthorised encampments in the district has reduced.

"Collectively, the planning guidance and direction give a lot of favourable weight to planning applications for gipsy and traveller use, even when they are in the green belt."

He added: "In addition, various planning applications are being submitted by private landowners before the Development Plan Document process is complete, which is something the council has no control over but is something that residents have concerns about.

"We plan to pass on these concerns that residents have raised and hopefully get some satisfactory answers from the minister at our meeting with him."

The meeting between Mr Malik, Conservative group leader John Calway, Ruth Davis for the Liberal Democrats and Labour's Roger Hutchinson will take place next month.