AROUND £250,000 of public money is to be spent on hiring consultants to find somewhere to put travellers in Dorset.

Nine local authorities are banding together to seek approved gypsy and travellers’ sites after a series of suggestions were thwarted by local protesters.

Poole and Bournemouth have agreed to join with councils across the county to spend the estimated £250,000 on finding the transit sites.

Both resorts have struggled to earmark authorised sites without causing uproar among locals.

And Bournemouth council – which has chased one illegal camp around four different sites in recent weeks – says having an authorised site would give it more legal power to deal with them.

Cllr Ron Parker, Poole’s cabinet portfolio holder for the local economy, said: “Poole is in the same position as our neighbouring authorities of having to find suitable gypsy and traveller sites as required by the regional spatial strategy.

“We have tried to identify a suitable transit site but this has proved very difficult given the limited amount of available and appropriate land in Poole.

“The logical approach for the council now is to join our neighbours across Dorset in carrying out a wider search to identify the most appropriate areas for sites,” he said.

Residents in Poole feared a list of secret sites in the borough after first Merley Hall Farm, in the green belt at rural Ashington, and then a tourist car park at Branksome were put under the spotlight.

Meanwhile Bournemouth has proposed and then abandoned three potential sites – at Milhams in the north of the town; off the Wessex Way at Riverside Avenue; and off Cambridge Road, also near the Wessex Way.

The strategy requires Poole to find sites for 35 residential pitches and eight transit pitches by 2011. However all Dorset authorities dispute the requirements and Poole maintains its should be 15 residential and eight transit pitches.

The borough is refurbishing its Mannings Heath site for 15 residential pitches and the joint study will not affect this.

Six Dorset councils, the county council and the two unitary authorities have advertised for consultants and sites recommended would need to be adopted by each authority. The project is not due to be completed until 2012.

“We are trying to work together to solve the problem,” said Mike Evans, business manager in environmental services at Dorset County Council.

Bournemouth will contribute around £14,000 over three years and Mike Holmes, service director for planning and transport said: “If this essential work is not carried out the decision may be taken out of our hands by government and instead sites could be granted in unsuitable locations.”