FRESH calls have been made for Doncaster Council to address its plans for gipsy and traveller accommodation after a green belt caravan site was allowed to expand.
The authority's planning committee has given the go ahead for an extra 10 travellers' caravans to be added to the existing Riverside Mobile Home Park, at Kirkhouse Green Road, Kirkhouse Green, near Stainforth.
But councillors raised concerns the b
orough has still not drawn up a strategy to sort out an expected shortfall of 94 caravan plots by 2011.
Coun Beryl Roberts told the committee: "The thing that concerns me most is there is no policy in place."
Coun Eric Tatton-Kelly said: "We're not proactive - we're responding. I want to have an idea when we will come up with a plan for the future rather than just chasing things. Are we in discussions with the gipsy council?"
Planning officer Gareth Stent told him the department was seriously considering creating new guidelines and was waiting to hear the opinions of borough gipsies and travellers. It had also been looking at which sites were sustainable.
He said the authority was looking to extend existing sites and had to make sure the sites put forward were acceptable to the people who would be using them. The latest extension at Kirkhouse Green Road attracted concerns from Moss Parish Council.
Its members were worried about the effects on the borough's countryside.
The parish council claims the site is already too big and is unrepresentative of the rural community.
And members have contacted the Campaign to Protect Rural England to raise their concerns.
A statement from the parish council sent to borough planners said: "CPRE is making current efforts to protect green belt in the Doncaster East area and members propose to draw this matter to their attention, particularly in relation to the Special Scientific Interest status, and lobby their support to prevent further extensions to this site."
Doncaster has one of the largest gypsy and traveller populations in the country although most residents now live in houses.
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