Kirklees and Calderdale councils have come under fire for failing to provide Gipsy sites for more than a decade as illegal camps spring up across Bradford.

National Gipsy Council president Hughie Smith has warned that the escalating problem of travellers camping on car parks and business sites will continue until neighbouring Kirklees and Calderdale Councils earmark and install permanent sites for travellers.

He said pressure must be put on the authorities and government to end the merry-go-round occurring across Bradford.

Mr Smith criticised the two councils for failing to provide sites before 1995 - when they were bound by legislation - and said they should be fined.

"They flouted the law and it should be redressed in some way because other authorities including Bradford are paying for their failure to act," he said.

Councils are no longer legally required to provide land for travellers to settle. Mr Smith wants to see the Government set up a Gipsy working party to resolve the situation nationally.

"The Gipsy population is growing. This issue will not go away until sites are provided," he said.

"You do not hear of problems when travellers are happily settled.

"A large percentage of the blame for this situation must be placed on the former offending authorities.

"Kirklees and Calderdale have a moral obligation towards our community and we believe pressure should be brought to bear on them to fulfil the obligation.

"Were they to do so, this would ease the pressure on Bradford Council."

He said in the past 11 years he had visited approximately 100 sites with council representatives to earmark potential land for Gipsies to camp on in Calderdale and Kirklees, but they had all been turned down.

A spokesman for Calderdale Council said the issue was ongoing. However, it had not ruled out setting up a Gipsy site.

But a spokesman for Kirklees Council said it was not legally bound to create sites and it was "not in the process" of looking to do so at the moment.

Bradford Council provides 47 pitches for travellers, Leeds has 52 and Wakefield has 38.

A spokesman for Bradford Council's Gipsy Liaison Unit said: "Our two sites were paid for through a Government grant but the regulations under which they were funded, which required all local authorities to provide gipsy sites, were revoked by the last Government

"One possible solution would be to ask the Government to consider re-introducing the previous regulations.

"If all authorities were required to provide sites then it would relieve some of the pressure on Bradford."

The latest clutch of travellers have left land owned by British Gas in Valley Road, Bradford, following a spate of unauthorised camps around Bradford.

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