A £226,000 refurbishment has been given the go-ahead to improve facilities at a traveller site.

Brighton and Hove City Council's policy and resources committee approved the pay-out which will provide mains electricity at the council-run site at Horsdean.

The Government's Gypsy Sites Refurbishment Grant has already contributed £159,000 towards the refit which started in the summer.

The council last night approved spending a further £20,000 which will come from the city parks budget and £47,000 will be borrowed to pay for the work.

Horsdean, in Patcham, is the only official site in the city. There is another managed site in Southerham, near Lewes.

Horsdean has been closed since the summer for the installation of toilets and electricity, as well as water points at each pitch.

There are 23 pitches at the site and travellers will be charged £40 a pitch per week when it re-opens next spring.

A council spokesman said "We walk a tightrope in terms of public opinion on travellers.

"Lots of people seem to agree that official sites would help to reduce nuisance camping, but spending money on them or finding locations can be extremely controversial.

"We have one of only two camps in the entire county so we're trying to do our bit and are calling on other councils to get their acts together."

He said the weekly fee will partly cover business tax the council pays for the site.

There has been a generator at the site which regularly broke down, resulting in a lack of hot water.

Patcham councillor Geoffrey Theobald said he had objected to the original siting of the camp.

He said: "It floods, it is next to a busy road and is in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

"But now the camp has been put there people do have a right to basic human rights - they should have proper hot water and lighting."

Last month The Argus revealed that illegal traveller camps had cost the tax payer £1 million in the past five years.

Councillors, landowners and traveller representatives called for more managed sites in the city and across Sussex.

Hangleton councillor Dawn Barnett said more towns in Sussex should be forced to open managed traveller sites.

She said: "We have got to start being stricter. When travellers come to Brighton we must say they can stay at the site or go elsewhere.

"Every town should be forced to have a managed site."