CONTINUALLY evicting travellers from one site onto another is financially wasteful and damaging to health, according to Britain's public health professionals.

Travellers and gypsies were already at greater risk of ill health that those in settle communities and those risks were exacerbated by continual movement from one unplanned site to another, members of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) agreed at their annual conference in Cardiff this week.

The show of concern for the plight of itinerants comes as councils like South Gloucestershire are under orders from central government to provide more official traveller sites.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has directed the council to review its gypsy site provision and tackle the issue with greater ungency.

CIEH principal policy officer Andrew Griffiths said: "The travelling community will not disappear. Continually moving them from one local authority's area to another is financially wasteful and damaging to health - a bill which all in society have to pay.

"Risks to health increase as the standards of amenities on sites worsen and are at their greatest on disorganised, crowded and unplanned sites.

"The role of the environmental health practitioner must be clear and unbiased, protecting the health and safety of all communities, both travelling and settled."

Financial audits suggest the eviction of travellers can cost local authorities up to £400,000 per annum, much of which is spent on legal fees. A recent Home Office report estimates £123.5 million is needed to maintain existing authorised sites over the next 30 years, equivalent to £13,363 per site per year.

A recent survey has shown a lack of understanding of traveller life and culture leading to barriers with the settled community and the way in which services are delivered.

The survey also shows that travelling communities experience difficulties in accessing health care, are more likely to leave the education system early and experience significant discrimination.

In place of a lack of central planning and the determination by many local authorities not to provide sites and to evict travelling communities, the CIEH recommends:

* Local authorities should provide sanitation, water and refuse collection services to unauthorised encampments to mitigate threats to public health.

* Government subsidies for the provision of travellers' sites should be reintroduced.

* A formal toleration policy should be adopted towards unauthorised sites where inadequate authorised provision exists.

* Relevant local authority staff should receive training in aspects of traveller culture to enable them to deliver services sensitively.

* Local advisory committees should be set up to encourage and foster better relations between the travelling and the settled communities.

* Current "gypsy counts" should be replaced by assessments of travellers' needs in the context of the normal local planning processes.

* Government should coordinate a national register of permanent, transit emergency and gathering sites.