POLICE powers to move travellers on from parks will be severely restricted if a temporary traveller site cannot be agreed.

Brighton and Hove City Councillor Pete West called on opposition figures to come up with an alternative option for a temporary traveller sites after plans to use Hangleton Bottom were rejected on Thursday night.

Councillor West, head of the environment, transport and sustainability committee, said the city will be in a “very difficult position” when Horsdean closes in March for a year of improvement works.

If no alternative transit site is found, police will not be able to use s62 powers ordering them to a suitable pitch and not to return within three months. It will mean travellers can only be moved on using lengthy and costly process of court possession orders.

Coun West said: “Without a transit site, our parks will face even greater pressure with unauthorised encampments because police won’t be able to redirect travellers because there will be nowhere to direct them.

“Hangleton Bottom had 15 pitches where 15 households could have been placed but they are likely to end up in parks now.

“The opposition parties need to come up with ideas and they need to be feasible.”

Hangleton councillors Dawn Barnett and Tony Janio “thrilled” that proposal was thrown out.

Coun Barnett said: “It was not an appropriate site for travellers with young children as it is on a very busy road with all these large lorries coming to and from Sainsbury’s, M&S and Tesco.

“The council will have to have another think on which site to choose.”

Residents living near to the other sites considered by the council but rejected in favour of Hangleton Bottom said they would be opposed to officers looking again at their neighbourhoods.

Pat Berry, of the Coldean Community Forum, said: “We have had quite a lot of problems with travellers recently with one man nearly run over while walking in the woods by three youngsters in a van.

“What they really need is a field somewhere which is not going to interfere with local residents.”

Maggie Smith-Bendell, a Romany Gypsy liaison officer and National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups member, said: “A temporary transit site should be provided for.

“What they have to remember is that if travellers don’t have an address or a postcode, they won’t be able to access healthcare like GPs, only A&E.

“It’s a must that there’s a safe space provided by the local authority until this other site is refurbished and up and running again.”