A Mearns Travellers’ site has been held up as a model for more camps in Aberdeenshire.
The council’s Traveller subcommittee has agreed to draft a planning application for a “two-week” halting site costing £351,342 near Old Deer.
They were urged to look to the recently approved North Esk Park camp near St Cyrus as a model for future stopover areas.
Members also backed a commitment to “immediate site provision” for Travellers in the region.
Plans for sites at Ellon, Thainstone and Laurencekirk have all been discarded, and two others planned for Blackdog and Chapelton of Elsick may not take shape for years.
Proposals to open Aikey Brae to Travellers were first announced in 2014, but a backlash from locals forced the council to shelve the scheme.
Committee chairman Allan Hendry said members had no choice but to back the proposals, and added the local authority must keep searching for other possible locations.
He said that authorised encampments were the only way to help police deal with unofficial ones in the region.
Mr Hendry said: “We have got to find somewhere for them to go. We can’t keep chasing them about.”
The council recently agreed to authorise North Esk Park at St Cyrus, which was established without planning permission in 2013.
Mearns councillor George Carr called for North Esk Park to be taken into account by the council when considering future sites.
He said: “I think at St Cyrus there has been evidence of fairly good practice.
“I just wondered if we have had much feedback from the Gypsy Traveller community themselves on whether they have been interested in taking a more proactive role on the (Aikey Brae) site or various options along those lines?
“If you look at St Cyrus a lot of money has been spent there, there may be someone there who is willing to invest.
“We need to be looking at different options.”