PLANS for a travellers’ site in Bournemouth have been thrown out in a surprise U-turn by senior Bournemouth councillors.

Bournemouth Borough Council’s cabinet had been expected to back the plan to put a gypsy and travellers’ site on land off the Wessex Way at Cambridge Road and Suffolk Road.

On Tuesday, council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin had insisted the site was the “least bad” place to put a transit site with up to eight pitches.

But this morning, all seven members of the cabinet present voted to go back to the drawing board.

Around 80 members of the public were in the council chamber at Bournemouth Town Hall for the debate. Max Clarke, one of the organisers of the campaign against the site, was applauded when he urged councillors to think again.

But Roger Redding of the South West Alliance of Nomads said there was a need for such sites, and the Dorset Race Equality Network warned against discriminating against gypsies and travellers.

Three absent members of the cabinet sent apologies, including Cllr Jane Montrose, who had emailed protesters to say she was quitting the cabinet over the issue.

A statement issued by the council afterwards said the council would continue searching for a suitable site in the borough and would would in a co-ordinated way with neighbouring Poole.

Cllr MacLoughlin said: “We have rejected the recommendation to develop at this site but we trust that residents fully understand the potential consequences of trying to manage the unauthorised encampments in very sensitive locations, without having access to a transit site.

"There will undoubtedly be increased costs associated with this and removing them is both time consuming and expensive. Research we have undertaken has indicated that transit sites do provide an alternative to this lengthy process with considerable savings in both time and expense.”

He added: “Unless the law is changed to allow authorised encampments to be dealt with more promptly without having access to a transit site within the borough, then Bournemouth will continue to endure unauthorised encampments.”

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