First steps towards regional planning for Gypsy and Traveller sites in England: Evidence-based planning in practice

This paper looks at how steps are being taken to meet the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers across England. The broad task of meeting these needs requires evidence from specialist needs assessments to be incorporated within the usual route of land allocation as part of local authorities' Local Planning Documents and Regional Spatial Strategy. The paper takes these steps into consideration and explores how evidence is being created, made sense of, integrated and validated in order to achieve evidence-based planning policy. This system is still developing and reconciling evidence is proving challenging for many regions and localities. The paper concludes that ultimately more robust 'evidence' is required - although it is clear that 'evidence' will never be the sole basis for decisions in such a contentious area of policy.