ANGRY politicians say travellers had "no excuse" for setting up illegal camps across the district this summer as it emerged that Bradford Council's official sites, just upgraded at a cost of £820,000, are far from full.

At the Esholt travellers' site, 13 out of 19 pitches stand empty and at Mary Street , off Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, three out of 26 pitches are unused.

Critics are furious to hear that so many pitches are unoccupied, especially after a season when travellers set up an illegal camp at a war memorial in Low Moor and forced the cancellation of a school gala when they arrived on playing fields opposite Clayton CE primary school.

In April last year, the Telegraph & Argus reported on a row over the amount of money being spent on the facelift for the two Council-run traveller sites, with the local authority coming under fire from the likes of Shipley MP Philip Davies for adding £352,000 to a £468,000 Government grant for new and improved amenities.

Mr Davies said he was shocked to discover how empty the sites now are.

He said: "It seems these people prefer to go where they are not allowed.

"It's absolutely ridiculous, and frankly if these sites are not being fully used then they council should be closing them down and selling them off."

Councillor Debbie Davies, whose ward includes Esholt, says "enough is enough" after the problems caused by unauthorised traveller camps in recent months.

She said: "It's time we debunked the myth that there are not enough places for gypsies to stay in Bradford.

"Some people are always bleating that there's nowhere for them to go and these figures show that's simply not true.

"There's no excuse - the council should just confiscate their caravans if they refuse to take the legal places offered to them," Cllr Davies said.

"I know some of the pitches at Esholt have been standing empty for four years and now it's two thirds empty," she said

Bradford Council's Val Slater now has responsibility for traveller issues and last week held the first meeting of a taskforce formed to tackle the issue.

She said: "Unfortunately we had different travelling families in the district this summer with one particular group who just moved from site to site and that was their motivation for being in the district.

"We had about a dozen incidents of illegal sites and that one group were responsible for seven or eight of those incidents," Cllr Slater said.

And she revealed that after police ordered that group to move from Carrbottom Road to the official Esholt site - they spurned an offer to take empty pitches, instead departing and leaving blank application forms behind.

"A lot of travelling people see that sort of thing as too much official bureaucracy with form-filling and don't want to get involved," said Cllr Slater.

Speaking of Council efforts to fill empty pitches, she said: "There are a number of applications in the pipeline for those sites as there are travelling people who want to settle down, as well as those who wish to travel.

"Regarding applications it's exactly the same as if we are giving a tenancy for something else and so we have to make sure they are suitable people.

"We won't countenance having empty pitches and are trying to get them filled as soon as possible," Cllr Slater said.

"We must also work to minimise the number of incursions themselves and better utilise existing sites, particularly after the issues we have had this summer."

A spokesman for Bradford Council said: "We are taking steps to find tenants for the empty pitches and assessing any applications we receive in the same way as any other social housing landlord does when letting premises."