NO timeframe is in place to announce a location for Warrington’s future £2 million transit site for travellers.

A task group made up of councillors was set up to identify and recommend a location to the council’s cabinet but this is yet to happen.

More than 300 hundred pieces of land have been assessed for the site but, so far, none have been deemed to be deliverable.

Around £2 million has been set aside in the Labour-run council’s capital budget for the facility, which senior figures believe will reduce the number of costly unlawful encampments. It would allow officers to direct groups to the land.

But the issues continues to face major delays.

Cllr Kath Buckley (CON – Lymm South) raised the matter during Monday’s virtual full council meeting.

She asked: “When are Warrington Borough Council going to name the travellers site after a summer of sporadic problems in Warrington borough both north and south?”

In response, council leader Cllr Russ Bowden confirmed there is currently no timetable for when the task group will identify a site and present it to cabinet for approval.

The Labour politician added: “Officers within the  council continue in their work to try and identify a suitable transit site and that work supports the cross-party working group that was established in the council to do exactly that, to deliver a transit site for Warrington.

“That transit site needs to meet both the needs of both the travelling community and obviously residents of the borough.

“It’s that recognition of removing the repeated clash between the travelling and settled communities.

“The means of what we’re searching for is a suitable, achievable and deliverable transit site for the town.

“The working group has looked at in excess of 300 sites within the town, against the set of pre-agreed criteria, and so far has been unable to arrive at a site which achieves the objectives that were set for it, principally being that the site is achievable and can be brought forward.

“The work of officers and the group continues, in due course when a potential site has been identified and has the support of the working group a report will be drafted by that working group and presented to the cabinet for approval.”