A PATCH of council-owned land near Bournemouth’s Wessex Way has been named as the “least bad” place to put a travellers’ site.

Town Hall leaders want to put at least eight pitches for travellers on the land at Cambridge Road and Suffolk Road, which is currently used as a contractors’ compound.

The announcement comes after two previous sites were proposed and rejected – one near Millhams tip in North Bournemouth and one near the spur road at Riverside Avenue.

Council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin said: “If the council do proceed, it will inevitably upset some residents – that’s bound to be the case.

“However, the bigger picture is that across the town we continue to suffer from unauthorised encampments of gypsies and travellers which do cause significant disruption and nuisance to residents and businesses.”

He added: “This looks to be the least bad site in the town. Once we do have it established, it will enable the authorities – the council and the police – to properly manage unauthorised encampments.”

The council says travellers can be moved on almost immediately from illegal camps if the council fulfils its obligations to provide an authorised site. The proposed site is near several blocks of flats, where the local councillors are Cllr MacLoughlin and two fellow members of the cabinet. The cabinet will be asked to approve the site at a meeting on June 24 before an application for funding is made to the Housing and Communities Agency. A planning application will also have to be passed before any money is released.

Cambridge Road was chosen from a shortlist of three potential sites. The others were Queens Road, near Westbourne, and the “Trumpet Junction” near Lansdowne, where buses and taxis pass under the Wessex Way.

Sue Bickler, Bournemouth Borough Council’s head of strategic services, said travellers would be encouraged to book spaces at the site before arriving. They would only be allowed in after paying a deposit.

Members of the gypsy and travellers community were consulted over the choice of location and believed the site would be used, she said.

The council says the site should accommodate at least eight of the 12 pitches it needs to find to meet draft government requirements – although detailed design work could find space for more.