COUNCIL bosses have postponed a meeting that was set to rule on plans for accommodation for travellers after saying they needed more time to consider their decision.

Members of Chiltern District Council's Housing and Planning Overview Committee were due to meet this evening to discuss proposals for new pitches for travellers and travelling showpeople.

The meeting has now been put back until the new year, but the council says this will not disrupt a planned consultation with residents.

In August a report stated the authority needed to provide nine new pitches for travellers and 16 for travelling showpeople by 2026.

The council pinpointed five existing traveller sites that could be extended to provide the new pitches and a further five new locations that could be used to provide accommodation.

However councillors stressed this did not mean the sites identified as part of the council's Delivery Development Plan Document were suitable for development, adding use of land for travellers or travelling showpeople within the Green Belt is inappropriate.

In a statement the council said: "The DDPD will contain detailed development management policies, site allocations and land use designations. The gypsy, traveller and showpeople's proposed site options and consultation forms one part of this much wider document. Members decided they needed more time to give the report their full and thorough considersation.

"The Housing and Planning Overview Committee will now consider the DDPD on January 21, and make comments or recommendations. Cabinet then considers the document, with any revisions, on February 11, after which it will go out to public consultation for a minimum of six weeks.

"Any responses from the consultation will go before a Government-appointed inspector who will conduct an examination of the DDPD in the summer."