Basildon Council will have to start looking for new traveller sites across the borough from January, a public inquiry heard.

Just weeks after clearing Dale Farm in Crays Hill at a cost estimated to run in to millions, councillors will soon start considering land for new caravan pitches.

Residents and travellers yesterday packed the St Georges Suite of the Basildon Centre in St Martin’s Square for the first day of the hearing over plans for a 12-caravan pitch traveller site at Church Road, Laindon.

The council refused a planning application for the site to house the most needy families from Dale Farm, earlier this year.

Traveller campaigners argue that targets brought in under the Labour Government are still in force and Basildon Council has to provide up to 62 new pitches in total.

Clive Simpson, council head of planning, disputed a need for 62 new pitches, but conceded some would be found.

He said a strategic planning policy would go before the cabinet “relating to the future provision of traveller sites”.

He said: “We are required to carry out our own local needs assessment for gipsy and traveller sites. This will begin in earnest in January.”

Stuart Hardwicke-Carruthers, representing the families, argued the Church Road plans should be allowed, along with a further 50 temporary plots at the site, until more are provided by the council.

Mr Hardwicke-Carruthers said the Church Road site would go some way to meeting the need and if it had been approved earlier the eviction would not have been needed.

However, the council maintains the site is a haven for reptiles and amphibians and, therefore, unsuitable.

Tory councillor Terri Sargent said there were also concerns over the access on to narrow Church Road, and added the site was too near a primary school.

The inquiry continues today.