A COUNCIL are set to spend up to £15,000 on assessing the level of accommodation provided for gypsies and travellers.

Hyndburn Council have drafted proposals to hire consultants to carry out an in-depth assessment to make sure they are in line with national planning guidelines.

New guidelines for councils in the North West have stipulated that traveller sites should be equally distributed across the region. A report on the issue, which is to go before councillors next week, says the council believe they already offer a high level.

In the report, Chief Planning and Transportation Officer Simon Prideaux said: “A significant number of traveller sites are located in Hyndburn and the council firmly believes that other authorities do not do enough to share the responsibility of planning for this community.”