ONCE again, the bane of travellers in caravans vexes residents in East Lancashire -- and foxes the authorities.

For the row raging over a dozen caravan-dwelling families moving on to grassland near the Tesco superstore in Blackburn -- with typical complaints about the mess left behind when they depart -- is characteristic of the whole problem.

It is the fifth time in a month that this group has been ordered to move on in Blackburn alone. But, surely, the basic nuisance it is the fact that there is no real resolution to the whole situation of the problems that these transient people cause or the ones that they themselves suffer.

Indeed, the failure of local authorities and government to truly get to grips with it was graphically stressed earlier this month when the group that is currently the cause of the row at Blackburn was actually improperly camped on council land cheek by jowl with the town's official travellers' caravan site at Ewood.

The old, futile remedy of dealing with these unwanted settlements was for councils to pass the buck -- by moving the travellers on over their borders and allowing them to become the headache of another local authority and another neighbourhood's residents.

Since then, councils have been obliged to make proper provision for them, but, it is evident from the frequency and recurrence of the problem -- and from the unfunny farce of the recent Ewood incident -- that there is far from enough provision.

Must this absurdity and all the aggravation that comes with it -- for councils, residents and travellers -- continue? After all, the purposeful response that was shown by the government and local authorities when it came to accommodating refugees from the conflict in Kosovo and which can still be seen in the dispersal of asylum seekers around the country contrasts starkly with the lack of resolute action and legislation to put an end to the perennial problem of the travellers.