SO the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is tearing up the last government’s plans to force councils to provide traveller sites and clamp down on unauthorised encampments.

That will make many people in what commentators are calling the “settled community”, as pleased as punch. But what will be the consequences?

Certainly, it will stop many residents worrying about whether a traveller site is going to be located near their homes. It will please people who get angered by Travellers setting up camps that breach rules sometimes being treated in a more pussyfooting fashion than you or I might experience.

And it will stop council officers in places like Bournemouth and Poole suffering headaches while trying to find spots for official sites.

But the reality is that there is a traveller community – about 300,000 people – in Britain and, surprise surprise, many travel.

So what’s likely to happen in the future?

Travellers will still turn up as usual and set up an illegal camp. They will be moved on more swiftly than at present… and set up another unauthorised site somewhere else.

The government hopes incentives will encour- age councils to develop authorised sites. But when you can’t find a suitable site anyway, there’s fat chance of that happening here.

Mr Pickles may know his onions when it comes to announcing popular measures but I doubt if he’s solved the long-standing tension.

Unlike travellers on temporary camps, his changes won’t mean the pretty pickles of the past will just upsticks and go away.