THE North-East's links with the travelling community go back hundreds of years.

Clink Bank, in Witton Gilbert, Durham, is even named after gipsies who camped there. Clink was the slang term given to the tin items sold by travellers door-to-door.

Originating in India thousands of years ago, gipsies spread to Egypt, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe.

They brought with them music, dance, artistry and crafts, but not everyone welcomed them.

Xenophobia against travellers reached extreme heights in the 16th and 17th Centuries, when gipsies were banned from Scotland on pain of death.

Traditionally, gipsies integrated themselves in local communities by providing useful seasonal labour, but times have changed and conflicts between travellers and indigenous populations are returning.

According to official Government figures, there are more than 10,000 gipsy caravans in the UK.

But as the figures are compiled by local council counts taken on two specific days of the year, the number could be higher.

MPs are urging the Government to force councils into providing facilities at official sites for travellers.

Earlier this week, a House of Commons committee said there was a shortage of legal sites and urged the Government to make councils provide more land.

And, according to North-East councils, most of them provide sites despite the fact they are not obliged to.

Durham County Council has six sites with washing and cooking facilities.

A council spokesman said: "Prior to 1994, it was a statutory requirement to provide sites for travellers.

"It was removed, so we no longer had to provide them, but we thought they are a wise thing, so we decided to maintain and improve them.

"Regarding illegal encampments, we take a responsible approach and it is one of acceptance.

"You can throw people off land, but they are just going to go somewhere else."

All 113 of its pitches are full and the council is working with district councils and the police to find more land.

According to MPs, nationally more than 3,500 travellers have no legal place to park their caravans. It means they have to park illegally on land, to the outrage of locals, who complain about fly-tipping.

Darlington Borough Council has just spent £600,000 building 14 amenity blocks for its Honeypot Lane site.

At the same time, it also spent £33,000 on boulders and mounds of earth to stop travellers camping on its land illegally.

Newcastle City Council said it did not have sites because there was no demand.

It closed one in 2001, which was used by only one family.

Hartlepool Borough Council does not have a site either.

A spokesman said: "We have had ad hoc problems with travellers coming to occupy land in the Brenda Road area of the town.

"They have got no right to be there. We move them on as quickly as possible."

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) stressed the importance of the Government telling authorities where they stand when dealing with unauthorised encampments.

In recent months, travellers have been accused of flouting planning restrictions by buying land and developing it without relevant approvals.

Douglas Chalmers, the CLA's northern director, said: "People in affected areas, the local authorities and the travellers might find it easier to resolve their current differences if Government clarified its existing policy.

"Rural communities in the North-East are entitled to know what they can expect from those with the responsibility for dealing with travellers."