A planning panel has recommended 176 more gipsy and traveller pitches be found in Hertfordshire by 2011.

The East of England Regional Assembly's Regional Planning Panel made the recommendation yesterday.

It includes allocating an extra 63 pitches in south west Hertfordshire - 15 each in Watford, Three Rivers and Dacorum and 18 in Hertsmere.

The district in the county which must find the most number of extra pitches is St Albans - with 33.

The panel's recommendations will now be considered by the full regional assembly at their next meeting on January 25.

Regional planning panel chairman Councillor Derrick Ashley said: "Too many gipsies and travellers are on land without planning permission and without access to basic facilities and public services.

"The panel's recommendations to provide more legal pitches for gipsy and traveller families living in the region is a step forward in improving their quality of life and tackling the problem of unauthorised sites.

"It is now the responsibility of the full regional assembly to consider our recommendations in January.

"There will also be further opportunity for members of the public and others to make their views known in the spring of next year during a formal 12 week period of public consultation."

The Government requires all regional assemblies to make recommendations on where extra pitches should go.