GYPSIES are to be actively encouraged to set up camp in a Glasgow community after a wave of violence drove them away.

GYPSIES are to be actively encouraged to set up camp in a Glasgow community after a wave of violence drove them away.

The city council operates a site in Rodney Street in Maryhill with 10 pitches for travelling families.

But new research has found the site is being shunned because of fear of intimidation.

Only one of the pitches is being used and in recent years there have been no more than three pitches in use at any one time.

In 2003, a 16-year-old boy who lived with his family in a caravan on the site, was blasted with a double-barrelled shotgun outside his home.

Two men in a stolen car parked at the site and shot the teenager in the legs.

Later that year the site was cleared following a series of incidents including a death, a fire and reports of violence.

Local authorities are obliged to find out the accommodation needs of Gypsies and travellers who are a protected group under race equality legislation.

Earlier this year, Glasgow joined up with 10 other local authorities in the west of Scotland and commissioned research into what accommodation the community will need over the next five years.

It found that while occupancy levels at council sites across the area are generally high, most of the unlet pitches are in Glasgow and at Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire.

City council development and regeneration director Steve Inch said: "The research found the Rodney Street site was consistently under occupied, that it has never had a waiting list and that occupancy levels had been affected by fear of intimidation."

Glasgow currently has the smallest number of Gypsies and travellers in the west of Scotland but now intends to work with other councils to attract them to Maryhill.

If the move doesn't work the council may consider setting up a new site in the south or west of the city.

A total of 1290 Gypsies and travellers are living in west central Scotland with around 60% living in standard housing and the remainder on sites or encampments.

Mr Inch said: "One in four households living on official sites report incidences of harassment or discrimination usually from local people or other Gypsies and travellers.

"Family feuds within the Gypsies and traveller population are quite common and are more likely to cause people to move on from their current accommodation."

Despite councils providing official sites, there are known to be 60 unofficial camp sites across the west of Scotland although the figure could be considerably higher.

Hillhead councillor Hanzala Malik said: "We want to be a city that welcomes everyone. We have welcomed communities from all over the world and it would be rather a shame if we could not do that to members of our own community."