Sites for travellers will have to be included in housing developments or on green-belt land – and it is up to the people of Aberdeen to decide which, senior council officials said yesterday.
City councillors this week agreed to the principle of establishing a network of permanent and temporary sites for travellers throughout the north-east.
Officials preparing the city’s next local development plan last month proposed requiring developers to include specific sites for one or two travellers’ caravans in developments of 1,000 homes or more.
Opposition councillors branded the proposal “bonkers” but planning officials yesterday said it was one of only two identified ways of dealing with the problem of illegal encampments.
Development plan team leader Gale Beattie said: “You could put them in sites zoned as residential and we have said our preferred option is to look at larger developments.
“These sites are big enough so that something could be built to accommodate the needs of travellers.
“It was never intended that people would be setting up camp right next to someone’s semi-detached house.
“There would be enough space, they would be closer to facilities and it would be easier for them to access services, such as schools.”
Ms Beattie said the alternative would be to establish sites on green-belt land, but she added that option would not be the planners’ preference because of potential environmental issues and because the council would have less control over the way services were accessed.
“It’s just more difficult to manage but we are not saying it can’t be done,” she said.
“If someone has some other great idea then I would urge them to come forward.”
Public consultation on the proposed local development plan starts next Friday and runs until December 11.
Senior council planner Fraser Clyne said: “Doing nothing is the solution we have at the moment and if people think it’s a solution – it’s not.
“We can’t just shut our eyes and pretend the problem isn’t there, we have to find a solution and this is a suggestion.”