Wrong to scrap site targets for Travellers

Eric Pickles, secretary of state for communities and local government, is wrong to give the impression that giving Travellers on local authority sites security of tenure is an innovation by this government ( Pickles unveils crackdown on unapproved Traveller sites , 30 August). It follows from section 318 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, which stems in turn from a 2004 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, that treating Gypsies and Travellers less favourably than other tenants of mobile homes was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Implementing this ruling is very welcome, but it applies to less than half the Travellers in England. Nearly one in five are on unauthorised sites, which are to be the target of stronger enforcement powers. This is not "putting fairness back into communities" as Mr Pickles claims. The right way is to ensure that local authorities grant planning permission for enough sites to accommodate Travellers, for the simple reason they have nowhere else to go. Letting 368 councils decide individually how many pitches they will allow is a recipe for inaction, and promising undefined financial incentives to councils to develop sites themselves cannot have greater effect than the 100% new sites grant which Mr Pickles has abolished. Given the reluctance of councils to allocate land for Travellers, Mr Pickles is foolish to scrap the existing site targets and the prospect of government intervention where councils fail to act. That was the right way to ensure that sites would be provided, and thus unauthorised encampments eliminated. Eric Avebury Lib Dem, House of Lords