The Scottish Government is refusing to establish a national network of Gypsy Traveller halting sites.
Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said yesterday that the responsibility lay with local authorities because they were best suited to identify suitable places.
Illegal camps crop up across the north and north-east every year because of a shortage of official stopping places.
This leads to tension with the settled community and local authorities are often forced to take legal action to evict Gypsy Travellers from public spaces and private property.
Ms Burgess said: “Local authorities are responsible for taking decisions about the provision of Gypsy Traveller sites in their areas, based on their assessment of local accommodation needs.
“We therefore have no plans for the Scottish Government to establish a national network of sites.”
Angus North and Mearns SNP MSP, who raised the issue at Holyrood, said councils found it difficult to establish sites because few places were in public ownership.
“Councillors are naturally reluctant to support approved sites as travellers are always perceived as bad neighbours, even though we know that many of them cause little trouble,” he added.
“Could the government use its national planning powers, or at least consider doing so, to provide a national network of halting and permanent sites, because that might enable such a network to happen?”
Ms Burgess reiterated the government’s position and suggested that councils could work together to create a national network of sites.
“We funded Planning Aid for Scotland to carry out a project on planning and the Gypsy Traveller community,” she added.
“It has now produced guides for councillors and council officials on Gypsy Travellers and the planning system.”
Aberdeen City Council operates one site at Clinterty near Blackburn
Aberdeenshire Council will soon make a decision on whether Aikey Brae near Old Deer, land at Gold Road, Ellon, a council depot in Fordoun Road, Laurencekirk, and a plot by the old Inverurie paper mill – east of the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road should become travellers’ sites.