A TRAVELLER has called for local councils to provide more space for their community after a row erupted over encampments.

Residents in Green Lane, Mill Hill, are angry at the state their community pitches have been left in after around 40 caravans left the site on Sunday.

They moved to Focus car park near Greenbank Police Station.

One traveller, Christy Leah, 20, who is on a temporary site in Mill Hill, said: “We constantly put in planning permission applications to local councils to turn wasteland into traveller sites, but the vast majority are refused.”

However, Coun Konrad Tapp said: “I understand the point, but the limited money available to the council has to be spent on residents who work, own houses and pay taxes.

"They come first.”