Travellers forced off their own land over a planning dispute have made a new bid to return legally to the site.
Tom MacDonald, whose family members lived on land off Breach Drove, Beck Row, has submitted a planning application for five mobile homes and four touring caravans, along with a day room.
In February, bailiffs moved the travellers after a series of failed retrospective planning applications and appeals to keep their caravans on the site.
The new application covers a 0.28 hectare site compared with plans for 18 caravans on a one hectare site, which were rejected by a planning inspector in September 2007.
It comes as Forest Heath District Council's planning committee decided to provide an additional 18 authorised pitches for travellers.
On April 30, members accepted a draft policy put forward by the East of England Regional Assembly to increase its number of pitches to 53 by 2011.
Richard Plowman, development control manager, said the council could reduce the number of asked for pitches because 12 were granted permanent planning permission at Willow Park, in Beck Row, in July 2006.
He added that the council must look seriously at providing more pitches to avoid travellers moving on to unauthorised sites, such as Breach Drove.
Renovation work also began this week at Sandy Park, Beck Row, after the district council secured a £750,000 grant from Go-East.
A further £250,000 of the council's capital reserves will be used to finance work at the site, which contains 35 pitches.
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