PLANNING applications for two traveller caravan sites have been refused amid concerns at the growth of gyspy settlements at a County Durham village.

Councillors went against their own officers' recommendations and threw out bids by gypsy families for two sites near Shotton Colliery.

Members of Durham County Council’s Area Planning Committee for Central and East Durham heard this afternoon that residents in the area were concerned about the growing number of caravan sites, particularly in the Salters Lane area near the village.

An application was submitted for a mobile home and a touring caravan, to be used by a single traveller family, on a site about 150 metres north of Shotton Colliery, to the west of Salters Lane.

A second application for three caravans for separate traveller families and associated buildings on land along Salters Lane between Shotton Colliery and Haswell was also heard.

Both were recommended for approval and no formal objections were submitted by residents, although Haswell Parish Council objected to the site near Haswell.

Alan Dobie, principal planning officer with the authority, told the meeting at County Hall: "There is need for an additional 60 traveller sites within County Durham.

"There is no capacity at other sites within the county and there are currently no plans for new council sites".

However Coun Robin Todd, who represents Shotton, said he had "huge concerns about the proliferation" of traveller sites in the area.

He said: "The people of Shotton Colliery are very much opposed to this type of development - they feel it has gone unchallenged for years."

Fellow ward councillor Eunice Huntington said: This is part of the gateway into the village.

"We have removed derelict buildings, there are other developments being built and we are trying to attract businesses and it isn’t helped when you have these random developments springing up".

She added: "Before much longer Shotton and Haswell are going to be joined together and local people really aren’t happy."

John Stones, representing the Haswell applicant said: "We are talking about three families here who just want to have somewhere to live without being moved on by the police."

Both applications were refused.

A retrospective planning application submitted by Nora Collins for three caravans to be used by a single extended family at Lakes Lane, in Shotton Colliery, was approved after the committee heard that the family had been settled on the site since 2007.