UK NEWS
GYPSYS' £20M HOUSING BONANZA
Travellers are costing us £20 million
MORE than £20million of taxpayers’ cash is being lavished on new and improved gypsy sites to create permanent homes for an extra 25,000 travellers.
Scores of new and extended sites are being planned across England to house 4,000 additional families over the next four years following an increase in illegal “land grabs” by gypsies.
The controversial scheme will spark a backlash from residents fearing rising crime and falling property prices as a result of living near a gypsy compound.
*** FIND OUT IF TRAVELLERS ARE MOVING TO YOUR AREA ***
The Department of Communities and Local Government has ordered regional planners to come up with sites for the extra 4,000 pitches and has handed over the £20million in grants to councils to create legal encampments.
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New and extended traveller sites are being planned around the UK
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Ministers insist the move will save money in the long run by cutting the £18million spent annually on trying to evict travellers from illegal sites.
A report by the department’s gypsy and traveller task force concludes: “We are clear that effective enforcement against unauthorised sites will only be possible when there is appropriate provision of authorised sites.”
It cites the example of Bristol Council which spent £200,000 a year on enforcement against illegal traveller sites before creating an authorised compound costing £425,000. Its enforcement bill is now £5,000 a year.
But the report warns of political difficulties in creating sites and suggests town halls urgently need communication and confidence-building programmes.
Otherwise, it warns, they risk “community conflict in some places with appalling consequences”. In Italy, residents’ anger over Roma gypsy camps spiralled into extreme violence last week as caravans were set on fire.
However, Paul Bettison, environment spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: “Measures to cut back on unauthorised traveller sites are good news for the council taxpayer.
“It is only by providing more authorised sites that local authorities can deal with the problem of illegal encampments.
“Both the gypsy and traveller and settled communities must have equal rights and carry the same responsibilities.
“This means all gypsies and travellers must pay council tax for the services they use. Only when this is seen to happen will there be reduced friction.”
The detailed proposals include almost 4,000 new pitches on 48 sites – including 19 new or extended sites. Regional planners suggest an extra 1,239 pitches are needed in the South-east and more than 1,150 in the South-west.
Caravan plots for an extra 750 gypsy families will be created in the Eastern region, with 386 pitches planned in the North-west. In Yorkshire and Humberside, 257 plots will be created by 2010 and in the North-east, 166 pitches are planned.
Communities Minister Iain Wright said: “A good supply of legal sites can break the cycle of evictions that is costly in terms of local tensions and taxpayers’ cash.”
But proposals for new legal sites in the past have provoked a fierce backlash from residents. In Wiltshire, so many locals turned up to protest against plans for a site on conservation land in Wootton Bassett that the meeting had to be split into three separate sessions.
Last year, more than 3,000 people signed a petition against a transit site at Hastings, forcing councillors to reject the proposal.
The repeal in 1994 of the 1968 Caravan Sites Act, which had required authorities to provide sites, has accelerated illegal camps and land-grabs.
Traveller groups suggest that 90 per cent of their applications for legal sites have been turned down – prompting the desperate measure of moving on to land first and applying for permission later. Lengthy planning inquiries and legal challenges to enforcement action can result in travellers remaining on illegal sites for years.
A spokesman for the charity Friends, Families and Travellers said: “The estimated shortfall in legal pitches is 4,000. That translates into 20,000 to 25,000 people who don’t have anywhere they can go to be legal.
“There is a desperate shortage. Local authorities push them over the borders of neighbouring authorities. It’s a national disgrace.”
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PEOPLE WITH NO IDEIA
29.05.08, 9:08pm
1st im a gypsy i am not irish part irish or to my knowledge have anything at all to do with irish gypsy in fact its alot of those what give engish gypsys a bad name
so were ever your thinking of sending me back to i dont belong there
2nd i pay taxes but i perfer to live in a caravan i still mix with other people and proud to say a vauled member of the comuaty both gypsy and otherwise
3rd i am not that good with speeling or reading but a lot better then others i want better for my children how dare you stop me from that
4th Im not blaming the people who dont want a site near them for fear of decine in house prices its the ones who think im going to steal from them and leave a mess
could you get away with tagging anyother race
I DONT THINK SO
• Posted by: marygypsy • Report Comment
THESE ARE NOT ROMANY!
25.05.08, 11:18am
The Minister who wants to place those currently referred to as 'Travellers' or 'Gypsies' would not by any chance be considering building a site near his home, would he? No, thought not. we will all be NIMBIES when the llocations are decided.
There are, in fact, very few real Romany people travelling the highways and byways of Britain nowadays. My grandmother was a Rom and I have a good idea what the life was like then. I also lived in a village as a child and young man, which was a regular point of call for genuine Romany travellers. They parked their REAL caravan homes upon a patch of waste ground and they left no mess behind when they moved - so that they would be tolerated when they came again. Today, all we have are people who do not want to pay the price of living in modern Britain. They do not want responsibility for their lives or those of their children. Instead, they would rather live like outcasts and become parasites upon the back of the rest of us, who pay their way in society.
These misfits must be made to realise that they need to live in our overcrowded island as we all do - with respect and tolerance for each other and each other's property, and paying their dues to society.
• Posted by: BillTed • Report Comment
PROPERTY PRICES AND TRAVELLERS.
25.05.08, 10:19am
With our ludicrous house prices (caused by the banks) and high rental prices, why should we be surprised when so many people opt out of it all and live in a caravan.
40 years ago almost all houses were council houses, let at very low rents.
There were almost NO travellers then.
• Posted by: stevewo • Report Comment
GYPSY'S 320M HOUSING BONANZA
25.05.08, 9:58am
Ireland has banned gypsy sites ,so where is the obvious place to go for a land that has no laws that need worrying about England If you so something there that could be illegal in no time you will be surrounded by people willing to cover up for you.
• Posted by: uselss • Report Comment
DON'T WANT TO CARP ON ABOUT IMMIGRATION BUT LET'S
25.05.08, 1:25am
Don't want to carp on about Immigration but let's face it the government are only too happy to spend taxpayers money to fund housing, benefits, etc for Immigrants not to mention on how some Immigrants have adopted and taken over whole areas making them a no go area. As long as the gypsy/traveller camps are kept clean and well maintained which most are I don't see the problem. If you was to look up the history on romany gypsies you will see many fought and lost their lives for this country during the war so that in my book has earned them the right to live a decent life in this country.
• Posted by: Nimue • Report Comment
MARYGYPSY
25.05.08, 12:48am
Unless you are a council employee and God knows there's an army of them, it isn't necessary to post your debatable grievances in triplicate, triplicate, triplicate!
• Posted by: Adanac • Report Comment
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