“JUST call it a day.” That’s the advice being given to Bournemouth council after yet another travellers’ site bit the dust.

A shock U-turn by council leaders yesterday saw plans for a travellers’ site in central Bournemouth unanimously rejected.

It was the fourth successive site to fall by the wayside and there are now calls for the council to give up the search altogether.

It comes as the council confirms it has considered and discarded 18 sites across the borough. The locations of seven of these are already in the public domain but the council would not give details of the rest because they may have to be revisited.

Independent Cllr Ron Whittaker said the council now needed to stand up to the government and refuse to keep seeking out sites.

“Nobody’s prepared to say we have no suitable sites,” he said. “But that’s the truth and we should be saying that to the government “How many more sites are they going to pluck out of the air? Why don’t they just accept we don’t have one, get the MPs on board and make our arguments to the government. Just call it a day because the current situation is crazy.”

And Cllr Claire Smith, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrats, called on the authority to stop “running around Bournemouth upsetting people” over a succession of suggested sites.

Max Clarke, who co-ordinated the campaign against the latest site at Cambridge Road and Suffolk Road, said: “Why can’t the local boroughs get together and come up with a site between them? We should stand up to the government and see if we could possibly share with other boroughs.”

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