Zero tolerance - not the only way

From the Travellers' Times

A Leeds-based project intending to end the cycle of unauthorised encampment, eviction, stress and mess of ‘zero-tolerance’ approaches to roadside Traveller encampments has been given a thumbs-up by Leeds Travellers.

The new ‘negotiated stopping’ scheme involves temporary agreements between a group of Leeds Gypsies and Travellers and Leeds City Council that allow the Travellers to camp for up to three months on specified areas of vacant council land. In return, the Gypsies and Travellers sign a contract agreeing to keep the area clean and to move off at the end of the agreed period. The project also has the support of Yorkshire police who say that the new scheme is a “win-win” situation that saves money and resources and allows them to engage with the negotiated sites using a local community policing model – the same model that is used for the neighbouring streets and estates.

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