SIR – According to Cllr Slater a third of the official Travellers sites, which recently cost the taxpayer an exorbitant £820,000 to upgrade, are unused because the Travellers spurn bureaucracy and do not want to get involved (T&A, September 11).

The choice is theirs and rather than the council imploring them to use the empty pitches, they should be closed down, for those currently in use are evidently sufficient to fulfil the council’s obligations.

Would suggest that the prime purpose of the task force is to establish a procedure for the immediate removal of illegal camps out of the district on the basis of where there is a will, there is a way.

John Pashley, Westcliffe Avenue, Bradford