TRAVELLERS

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About 20 families have been camped illegally on council-owned land on Glossop Street in Allenton for the last two years. The city council has now said it is considering dropping plans to evict them and to install water and electricity on the site instead. People living in the area are to be asked for their views before any decision is made but if the objections are strong and valid enough, the council said it would step up its attempts to have the gypsies moved on and abandon plans for an official site.

Amar Nath, the council's cabinet member for neighbourhood, community and housing policy, said there was no definite figure for how many objections or approvals would be needed for the council to make its decision. He said councillors would base their judgement on the arguments put forward.

He said, "A questionnaire will go out to residents over the next fortnight asking if they would accept the group of travellers in Glossop Street staying. If the overall feeling is they are saying no, the council will have to take some further action. There would be a strong reason for us to move them on. But if they say yes, then that's what we'll look at to see how it can be achieved."

People who stayed on the camp would have to pay a land rent to the council, but the council could not confirm whether or not they would have to pay council tax. The camp would be paid for through the Government's Gypsy Site Refurbishment Grant, a pot of money set aside in line with guidelines encouraging authorities to identify possible sites. (Source: BBC News, Oct/06)

Travellers who are due to be evicted from public land in Osmaston have made a formal bid to claim it as their own. Representatives from families camped in Glossop Street have applied for planning permission to change the use of the road and surrounding area to a gypsy site. And, while Derby City Council's housing department is instructing the authority's lawyers to go to court to secure the families' eviction, the planning department has to consider the application.

Even if planning consent was approved, the gypsies would still need permission from the council, as the landowner, to change the use of the site, which it would be unlikely to get. Paul Clarke, the council's head of development, said that there were several complex issues in the application, including the fact that the site includes Glossop Street itself as well as the land on either side. This would mean that the council would have to give up ownership of the road as well as the land, if the plans ever went ahead. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/07)

Travellers who settled at Shipley Country Park said they came to Derbyshire because the county council was an easy target and always gave them a few weeks before moving them on. One of the travellers, who have been at the park for about two weeks, said, "This council's the best. We know they won't move us on straight away."

But Councillor Joyce Sanders, county council cabinet member for community safety, said that the authority followed Government guidelines in dealing with travellers. She said, "Derbyshire is not a soft touch. We treat all unauthorised travellers firmly but fairly. We follow the law."

The rubbish left by travellers in Shipley Country Park cost Derbyshire County Council in the region of £3,000 to £4,000 to clean up but the authority has no plans to revise its policy for dealing with them. A spokeswoman said, "Derbyshire's approach for dealing with travellers is in line with Government legislation. It's been agreed by the county council, Derby City Council, all the district and borough councils, police and the Environment Agency." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Oct/06)

A group of travellers left 10 tonnes of rubbish on the Derby Fireplace Company car park at Wyvern retail park. They also tried to shoplift from the store, and used the side of the building as a toilet. Owner Keith Harrison, said, "A group of children kept running into our store, trying to get into private sections of the shop and generally causing a complete nuisance. We even caught one of the children, who must have been around five years of age, trying to steal a brush and pan companion set we sell."

He called Derby City Council's environmental health department to get help in clearing the waste but says he was told that the department could not help because the waste was on private land. The travellers left behind toys, car seats and lots of household rubbish. It cost Mr Harrison £110 to hire a skip to clear his land and he is looking into erecting barriers to stop travellers from accessing the car park again. The neighbouring Toys R Us store also suffered problems from the behaviour of travellers' children and had to put staff on its front door to stop them from getting in. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jul/06)

Travellers left 74 tons of rubbish after being kicked off a site in Hebburn, South Tyneside they were illegally camped on for just one week. When the 50 caravans and lorries were evicted, they left behind waste including 17 empty gas bottles, 19 tons of timber and 40 tons of rubble. The council is now facing a £4,000 bill to clear up the debris. The travellers were moved off the old industrial estate, owned by Barratt Homes but returned back after only a week away. Their convoy has been roaming around the area, leaving a trail of rubbish in its wake.

The caravans first moved on to land at Gateshead and after a lengthy legal battle were evicted. They left the 50-acre site "looking like a rubbish tip" and within hours turned up at Hebburn, five miles away. The convoy was evicted by South Tyneside council and left the 74 tons of waste. The travellers then set up camp on disused land owned by Esso in North Shields but they were evicted and, again leaving tons of rubbish, returned to Hebburn. (Source: Daily Mirror, Apr/06)

When residents were asked to provide feedback on council plans to build traveller camps on their doorstep they dutifully responded. More than 3,000 homeowners filled in forms outlining their views, many raising concerns over a possible increase in noise, traffic, rubbish and a detrimental effect on property prices. However, such objections were not appreciated by Mid-Bedfordshire District Council, which partially or fully rejected nearly nine in ten of the replies for including comments 'of a racist nature'. Weeks after asking for residents' views earlier this year, the council posted an article on its website entitled 'Racist Comments Not Welcome'.

It claimed the council's 'duty of community leadership' meant it had to crack down on the use of racial stereotypes, and revealed that while 400 responses would be considered, 3,100 were in some way racist and would be rejected. The council even sent letters to objectors telling them their views had been deemed offensive and would not be taken account of. Retired company secretary Lucy Clarke from Stotfold said, "As far as I am aware I objected to the camp for entirely reasonable grounds. And yet I then get this letter from the council. They even accused me of incitement to racial hatred. It's ridiculous - like putting me on a par with Abu Hamza. I am not racist, but I am concerned about what one of these camps could do to our town."

Brian Collier, chairman of Stotfold council said, "We wrote a detailed response in which we summarised locals' concerns. There is another gipsy site not far from here that has a well-known crime problem. As part of our response we echoed people's worries that the same may happen here. We were totally shocked when we then received a letter from the district council saying that was racist. There are lots of people here who have had the same treatment." (Source: Daily Mail, Dec/08)

Gipsies' human rights are more important than the concerns of local residents, according to new planning rules. Guidelines mean planning inspectors will favour letting them set up sites and stay on existing ones, while complaints will be largely ignored. Travellers will even be allowed to build sites in the countryside, on legally protected land and on the green belt. Gipsies need caravan sites, the rules said, because many suffer 'aversion to bricks and mortar' and 'the sense of enclosure can be distressing to people who have been used to outdoor living'.

They qualify for special favours under human rights and race relations law, meaning the fears of those who worry that a traveller site will bring an increase in crime should be given 'little weight'. Fear of crime is not 'a legitimate ground on which to withhold planning permission,' the guidance said. But if travellers say they cannot live on an existing site because they are worried about intimidation by its ruling families, 'this should be taken into account'. Residents will not be able to bar a gipsy site because the travellers have no local connections.

However, if gipsies can show they have local links, it strengthens their case to build a site, the guidelines added. Travellers do not even need to have settled on a site to claim that it is their home. And they should be given the right to pick a site of their own if the local council has failed to provide enough official sites in the neighbourhood. The rules for planning inspectors are the culmination of a series of directives issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government over the past five years which have bent planning rules in favour of travellers.

They were laid down in spring last year but only made public yesterday after Freedom of Information requests. It comes after a traveller group tried to exploit council workers being off over the Bank Holiday weekend to set up a permanent site without planning permission. Villagers in Meriden, Warwickshire, have been blockading an illegal settlement to prevent travellers getting building materials on to it. The rules said rural settings for sites 'are acceptable in principle'.

Conservation areas and areas of outstanding natural beauty 'are not precluded', and gipsy sites on green belt land are allowed 'under very special circumstances'. Local councils should not be allowed to set rules to stop this. Tory communities spokesman Caroline Spelman said, "The British public want to see fair play for all, rather than special treatment being given to some. Labour's changes have undermined community cohesion... and caused a tide of resentment in many communities across Britain." (Source: Daily Mail, May/10)

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