Communities secretary Eric Pickles has promised to give councils tougher enforcement powers to prevent illegal travellers sites like Dale Farm being created.

He told conference: 'We are providing £60m for councils to build official sites for travellers. It's not right to have planning rules that give the green light to travellers camps being dumped on the countryside. We want to give councils stronger powers to prevent unauthorised sites like Dale Farm being ever established in the first place. It's time to respect the property rights of law-abiding homeowners.'