Another miserable summer could be on the horizon for Petersfield residents as travellers return to two sites in Petersfield.

And in the same week retiring town councillor John Crowhurst has called for renewed pressure to be put on the district council to find a lasting solution to the problem, and called for an authorised campsite to be established.

Travellers are back on a site in Bedford Road that was occupied for months last year and a second group has now camped on the old coal yard site near the railway station.

The arrivals could spell the start of yet another summer of high clean-up and legal costs for land owners and both the town and district council.

Mr Crowhurst told members of the council's finance

and general purposes committee last week: "This is the duty of the district council and it is up to parishes to put the pressure on."

Mr Crowhurst has long advocated the creation of an authorised traveller site in the district, a solution that in conjunction with greater police powers has worked in the Republic of Ireland.

"There are funds available for the creation of these sites, that is the only answer," said Mr Crowhurst.

"The district has not accepted its responsibility in this and come forward with some sort of plan."

The district council currently removes illegal encampments on its own land within four days but has not extended this assistance to private landowners.

It also issues a code of conduct to all groups of travellers in the district, outlining certain rules that the council expects them to adhere to.

But Mr Crowhurst believes that this is not enough.

He said: "Leaving it as it is the local tax payer is picking up the bill. The district council should be asked what the position is now and what the position will be in future."

Last year Petersfield Town Council urged the Hampshire Association of Town and Parish Councils (HAPTC) to call on the government to take action against the problem.

And the government's response seems to back Mr Crowhust's views.

In a letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to the HAPTC, Tony McNulty MP states: "I would like to make it clear that effective strategies towards the management of unauthorised camping does not solely lie within

the responsibility of

central government. Local authorities will always have a key role to play based on their own experiences of illegal encampments."

He added: "The proposed new police powers to move illegal traveller camps will not replace existing legislation. The use of new police powers is dependent on local authorities providing adequate site provision that would allow the police to move illegal campers on to an authorised site. I would like to assure you that the government is providing funding for temporary sites, as we have always made clear that any stronger enforcement powers should be linked with adequate site provision."

But while town councillors were unanimous in recognising that more was needed to be done to tackle the problem, not all were convinced that the provision of a legal site was the answer.

Bob Ayer, a town and district councillor, said: "I do not think every person in Petersfield would be as enthusiastic as John Crowhurst for having a site in Petersfield."

Mr Crowhurst first called for an authorised site to be

established in the district last summer.

Town councillors tried to censure Mr Crowhurst as he outlined his solution that included a permanent campsite near Butser Hill.

Both the town and district councils faced huge clean-up and legal costs last summer and Mr Crowhurst said he had identified 10 sites within the town where he thought travellers might camp illegally.

However, councillors did not want him to announce them in public.

He said at the time: "I was told by the other members of the council that it is scaremongering. It is not scaremongering, it is facing the realities of the situation."