From Cambridge-News.co.uk
Taxpayers may be hit with a bill for more than £12,000 because Travellers failed to pay for a sewage system.
The debt owed by 28 plot holders at Smithy Fen in Cottenham is expected to be written off by South Cambridgeshire District Council, with just £1,049 of the £13,166 cost recouped so far.
Just £10 was returned last year.
As the News reported, 18,500 gallons of effluent were removed and extensive repairs were carried out at Smithy Fen in January 2008, amid fears the waste was a health hazard.
Many of the problems appeared to have been caused deliberately – including manholes covered with asphalt, stopped up drainage, and sewage contaminated with oil – and a notice served on families to carry out maintenance was ignored.
Cllr Deborah Roberts, an independent who represents Fowlmere and Foxton, claimed Travellers were getting preferential treatment.
She said: “This is quite unacceptable – the council has a duty to get this money back.
“If you owe money to the council and you live in a house they’ll come down on you like a tonne of bricks and what’s good for one should be good for the rest.”
But Cllr Simon Edwards, deputy leader and finance chief, said the council had a legal duty to do the work to prevent a health hazard, and had done as much to retrieve the cash as it would from the settled population.
He confirmed it was likely the debt would be written off soon, and described the situation as “hugely frustrating”, but said efforts would be renewed if the land changed hands.
He said: “Many of the plots haven’t been lived on for more than two years and we’re looking at a debt for each plot of around £300. A bailiff costs £100, so there comes a point where we have to draw a line.
“That point hasn’t arrived yet and it won’t be written off until we’ve done all we can.”
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Travellers to be moved on from Canal Way, Ilminster site - Somerset
From Yeovil Express
TRAVELLERS who arrived in Ilminster at the weekend were due to be moved on yesterday (Tuesday) as the News was going to press.
A number of concerned residents reported a camp which sprung up in the Canal Way area at around 11am on Sunday to the police, town council and district council.
Around 12 caravans, with trucks, Transits, dogs, children and other equipment, were spotted at the Minster Business Park near a popular cycle path.
But as it was classed as a civil trespass matter on private land it was down to Yeovil-based land owners Abbey Manor Group to secure the necessary documentation to force the Travellers to move on, giving them a deadline of 9am on Tuesday by which to leave.
One of the Travellers, calling himself Mr Price, said he was disappointed with the treatment the group by the authorities.
He said: “All we want is a couple of days here so we can get back to the Midlands, but they wouldn’t even give us a couple of days.
“They just want us gone, and they’ve forced us to leave or they said they’ll bring the bailiffs.
“There were seven lots of police cars down here this morning and two riot vans at the gate.”
Ilminster Mayor Cllr Roger Swann was keen to reassure residents that the matter would be resolved quickly.
Speaking to the News on Monday, he said: “I believe the authorities have everything in hand and are securing the necessary official documentation to assist them.
“I think the situation’s well under control.”
TRAVELLERS who arrived in Ilminster at the weekend were due to be moved on yesterday (Tuesday) as the News was going to press.
A number of concerned residents reported a camp which sprung up in the Canal Way area at around 11am on Sunday to the police, town council and district council.
Around 12 caravans, with trucks, Transits, dogs, children and other equipment, were spotted at the Minster Business Park near a popular cycle path.
But as it was classed as a civil trespass matter on private land it was down to Yeovil-based land owners Abbey Manor Group to secure the necessary documentation to force the Travellers to move on, giving them a deadline of 9am on Tuesday by which to leave.
One of the Travellers, calling himself Mr Price, said he was disappointed with the treatment the group by the authorities.
He said: “All we want is a couple of days here so we can get back to the Midlands, but they wouldn’t even give us a couple of days.
“They just want us gone, and they’ve forced us to leave or they said they’ll bring the bailiffs.
“There were seven lots of police cars down here this morning and two riot vans at the gate.”
Ilminster Mayor Cllr Roger Swann was keen to reassure residents that the matter would be resolved quickly.
Speaking to the News on Monday, he said: “I believe the authorities have everything in hand and are securing the necessary official documentation to assist them.
“I think the situation’s well under control.”
Travellers set up camp at Aberdeen site planned for new police base
From the Evening Express
TRAVELLERS were today facing “swift” legal action after stopping on a site in Aberdeen earmarked for a new £10 million base for Grampian Police.
The group – with more than a dozen caravans – were camped next to Great Northern Road in Aberdeen.
Scottish Water, which owns the land at Kittybrewster, said today it would move quickly to have the group shifted.
TRAVELLERS were today facing “swift” legal action after stopping on a site in Aberdeen earmarked for a new £10 million base for Grampian Police.
The group – with more than a dozen caravans – were camped next to Great Northern Road in Aberdeen.
Scottish Water, which owns the land at Kittybrewster, said today it would move quickly to have the group shifted.
Bid to evict Travellers from Haskells Rec, Newtown - Dorset
From the Bournmouth Echo
POOLE: Borough of Poole officers will go to court today seeking an eviction order for the illegal Traveller encampment at Haskells Rec in Newtown.
Jeff Morley, council team manager, said: “If successful, we will be serving this order the same day. The Travellers will then have 24 hours to leave the site.”
POOLE: Borough of Poole officers will go to court today seeking an eviction order for the illegal Traveller encampment at Haskells Rec in Newtown.
Jeff Morley, council team manager, said: “If successful, we will be serving this order the same day. The Travellers will then have 24 hours to leave the site.”
History of Cardiff’s Gypsy and Traveller communities explored in new exhibition
From Wales Online
A new exhibition looking at the history of Gypsy and Traveller communities in Cardiff will open at the Cardiff Story museum on Friday.
“Pots n Pans: A Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Way of Life” has been organised by The Romani Cultural and Arts Company to explore the traditions of Gypsies and Travellers in the city.
There will be photographs, objects and stories about what it was like growing up on the city’s Shirenewton and Rover Way Gypsy sites now and in the past, and details about travellers’ traditions such as cooking and food, and why china always takes pride of place in trailers and modern day wagons.
Pots and jugs made by children aged five to 14-years-old at the Shirenewton Gypsy site’s home club will also go on display at the exhibition, and it is hoped some of the children will come along to see the launch on Friday.
All the artefacts will be displayed in the Cardiff Story’s city showcase exhibition space.
Lillie Bramley, from The Romani and Cultural Arts Company, said: “We’ll be looking at the heritage of Gypsy Travellers. It’s about breaking down the stereotypes and celebrating the Gypsy culture.”
The “Pots n Pans” exhibition will run from Friday until August 28.
From June 16-30 there will be a second exhibition at the Cardiff Story museum by international Romany artist Delaine Le Bas, and both exhibitions coincide with Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
This will include a national symposium at Cardiff’s City Hall on June 22.
A new exhibition looking at the history of Gypsy and Traveller communities in Cardiff will open at the Cardiff Story museum on Friday.
“Pots n Pans: A Cardiff Gypsy and Traveller Way of Life” has been organised by The Romani Cultural and Arts Company to explore the traditions of Gypsies and Travellers in the city.
There will be photographs, objects and stories about what it was like growing up on the city’s Shirenewton and Rover Way Gypsy sites now and in the past, and details about travellers’ traditions such as cooking and food, and why china always takes pride of place in trailers and modern day wagons.
Pots and jugs made by children aged five to 14-years-old at the Shirenewton Gypsy site’s home club will also go on display at the exhibition, and it is hoped some of the children will come along to see the launch on Friday.
All the artefacts will be displayed in the Cardiff Story’s city showcase exhibition space.
Lillie Bramley, from The Romani and Cultural Arts Company, said: “We’ll be looking at the heritage of Gypsy Travellers. It’s about breaking down the stereotypes and celebrating the Gypsy culture.”
The “Pots n Pans” exhibition will run from Friday until August 28.
From June 16-30 there will be a second exhibition at the Cardiff Story museum by international Romany artist Delaine Le Bas, and both exhibitions coincide with Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
This will include a national symposium at Cardiff’s City Hall on June 22.
Three Derbyshire schools closed due to Travellers on land
From the BBC
Three Derbyshire schools were forced to close for the day after Travellers moved on to their grounds.
Seven caravans were driven through the school gates and on to the playing fields at 19:30 BST on Tuesday.
Parklands, Harrington and Wilsthorpe schools, which share the same land in Long Eaton, decided to close. About 1,200 pupils were affected.
The police gave the Travellers a deadline to leave and they left the premises.
Parklands Nursery and Infants, Harrington Junior and Wilsthorpe Community School, share a main public access road.
'No consideration'
Andrew Rose, 39, deputy head teacher at Wilsthorpe, said: "They drove onto the middle of the school playing fields yesterday evening while the gates were open because events were taking place at the schools.
"When I arrived this morning, I saw a police van and car blocking the main drive."
One Traveller, who gave his name as John, said their decision to stop there had been prompted by frustration at a lack of permanent Traveller sites provided by the county council.
He said: "We're sick of this happening seven days a week. As soon as we leave and go somewhere else, we'll have the same thing again."
Sharon Cully, whose son attends Parklands, said: "I feel so angry towards these Travellers entering on to school fields with no consideration for the teachers, staff and children, it's just very upsetting."
Eight students, who are taking an A-level geography exam, were allowed to sit the test as normal.
see also ITV News - Travellers On School Fields
Longeaton People - Travellers camp on Wilsthorpe, Harrington Parklands playing fields
This Is Derbyshire - Long Eaton schools closed after Travellers park on playing fields
Three Derbyshire schools were forced to close for the day after Travellers moved on to their grounds.
Seven caravans were driven through the school gates and on to the playing fields at 19:30 BST on Tuesday.
Parklands, Harrington and Wilsthorpe schools, which share the same land in Long Eaton, decided to close. About 1,200 pupils were affected.
The police gave the Travellers a deadline to leave and they left the premises.
Parklands Nursery and Infants, Harrington Junior and Wilsthorpe Community School, share a main public access road.
'No consideration'
Andrew Rose, 39, deputy head teacher at Wilsthorpe, said: "They drove onto the middle of the school playing fields yesterday evening while the gates were open because events were taking place at the schools.
"When I arrived this morning, I saw a police van and car blocking the main drive."
One Traveller, who gave his name as John, said their decision to stop there had been prompted by frustration at a lack of permanent Traveller sites provided by the county council.
He said: "We're sick of this happening seven days a week. As soon as we leave and go somewhere else, we'll have the same thing again."
Sharon Cully, whose son attends Parklands, said: "I feel so angry towards these Travellers entering on to school fields with no consideration for the teachers, staff and children, it's just very upsetting."
Eight students, who are taking an A-level geography exam, were allowed to sit the test as normal.
see also ITV News - Travellers On School Fields
Longeaton People - Travellers camp on Wilsthorpe, Harrington Parklands playing fields
This Is Derbyshire - Long Eaton schools closed after Travellers park on playing fields
Gypsy families are given permission to stay at site - Essex
From the Brentwood Gazette
FIVE Traveller families will be able to continue to live in Mountnessing for the next 18 months – although they will have to wait to find out if they will be able to stay permanently.
Bernadette Reilly and her three young children are among the Gypsy families who have been living at the Roman Triangle site in Roman Road for the past nine years.
This week, Brentwood Borough Council gave them permission to stay for another 18 months – but the families will then need to reapply by which time the authority is likely to have finalised its local development plan on where Gypsies can live.
Ms Reilly, who is the chairman of the Brentwood Gypsy Support Group, said the council had received only three letters of objection to her application for permanent planning permission and she was upset by its decision.
"We are very disappointed," she said. "We were hoping for full planning permission but we are not going to appeal it, we'll just run with it and see where it goes when we reapply."
Ms Reilly's temporary permission expired in April and she had hoped that the council would choose to grant her wish for permanent status this time round.
The decision, taken at a Town Hall planning meeting on Wednesday, was reached after a number of councillors, including Tory Will Russell and Labour's Mike Le Surf, questioned why permanent permission had not been granted.
Councillor Keith Parker told the meeting that the council had to wait until it finalised its local development plan, following the launch of the Localism Act.
The new act means the council will have to assess the need for pitches, based on historic demand, provide a five-year supply of land and identify specific areas to enable delivery of sites for at least 15 years.
Targets for traveller pitches in each part of the country will be set by the local authority.
Despite this, the borough council's previous consultation on the location of 15 permanent traveller pitches remains active and the results will be be used to identify any future need.
Cllr Parker said: "This is not detrimental where we are talking about because Roman Triangle is probably one of the sites that is integrated into the area and which will be high on our list.
"The right decision is temporary permission.
"If we give permanent permission for this site, where it might be appropriate, it could set a precedent for the other sites in the borough which might be determined within our local plan."
FIVE Traveller families will be able to continue to live in Mountnessing for the next 18 months – although they will have to wait to find out if they will be able to stay permanently.
Bernadette Reilly and her three young children are among the Gypsy families who have been living at the Roman Triangle site in Roman Road for the past nine years.
This week, Brentwood Borough Council gave them permission to stay for another 18 months – but the families will then need to reapply by which time the authority is likely to have finalised its local development plan on where Gypsies can live.
Ms Reilly, who is the chairman of the Brentwood Gypsy Support Group, said the council had received only three letters of objection to her application for permanent planning permission and she was upset by its decision.
"We are very disappointed," she said. "We were hoping for full planning permission but we are not going to appeal it, we'll just run with it and see where it goes when we reapply."
Ms Reilly's temporary permission expired in April and she had hoped that the council would choose to grant her wish for permanent status this time round.
The decision, taken at a Town Hall planning meeting on Wednesday, was reached after a number of councillors, including Tory Will Russell and Labour's Mike Le Surf, questioned why permanent permission had not been granted.
Councillor Keith Parker told the meeting that the council had to wait until it finalised its local development plan, following the launch of the Localism Act.
The new act means the council will have to assess the need for pitches, based on historic demand, provide a five-year supply of land and identify specific areas to enable delivery of sites for at least 15 years.
Targets for traveller pitches in each part of the country will be set by the local authority.
Despite this, the borough council's previous consultation on the location of 15 permanent traveller pitches remains active and the results will be be used to identify any future need.
Cllr Parker said: "This is not detrimental where we are talking about because Roman Triangle is probably one of the sites that is integrated into the area and which will be high on our list.
"The right decision is temporary permission.
"If we give permanent permission for this site, where it might be appropriate, it could set a precedent for the other sites in the borough which might be determined within our local plan."
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Travellers pitch in Colchester - Essex
From the Essex County Standard
TRAVELLERS have pitched up at the old Severalls Hospital site this afternoon.
Two caravans are currently on the site, off Boxted Road, Colchester, which has been cordoned off by security guards to prevent anymore arriving.
TRAVELLERS have pitched up at the old Severalls Hospital site this afternoon.
Two caravans are currently on the site, off Boxted Road, Colchester, which has been cordoned off by security guards to prevent anymore arriving.
Travellers ordered to quit Tooting Common - London
From wandsworth.gov.uk
A group of Travellers who have set up camp on Tooting Common have been told to leave within the next 24 hours or face prosecution and risk having their vehicles towed away.
The Travellers have been served with notices requiring them to vacate the common by 2.30pm tomorrow (Wednesday). Failure to meet this deadline could render them liable to court action.
Camping overnight on any part of Tooting Common, without prior authorisation from the council, is a criminal offence under parks and open spaces byelaws.
The council also has powers to physically remove any person, and their belongings, including vehicles, if they do not comply with the byelaws.
Environment spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: "Local people can rest assured that we have acted quickly to remove this group from the common.
"By acting so swiftly we have reduced the likelihood of this camp getting any bigger and also ensured that this group will depart before the common and its facilities suffer any lasting damage."
Residents who witness any incident involving Travellers on council-owned land are being urged to contact the town hall's emergency response team on (020) 8871 6900. This is a 24 hour service. Occupations of other land should be reported immediately to the police.
The council provides an approved Travellers site in Trewint Street, Earlsfield.
A group of Travellers who have set up camp on Tooting Common have been told to leave within the next 24 hours or face prosecution and risk having their vehicles towed away.
The Travellers have been served with notices requiring them to vacate the common by 2.30pm tomorrow (Wednesday). Failure to meet this deadline could render them liable to court action.
Camping overnight on any part of Tooting Common, without prior authorisation from the council, is a criminal offence under parks and open spaces byelaws.
The council also has powers to physically remove any person, and their belongings, including vehicles, if they do not comply with the byelaws.
Environment spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: "Local people can rest assured that we have acted quickly to remove this group from the common.
"By acting so swiftly we have reduced the likelihood of this camp getting any bigger and also ensured that this group will depart before the common and its facilities suffer any lasting damage."
Residents who witness any incident involving Travellers on council-owned land are being urged to contact the town hall's emergency response team on (020) 8871 6900. This is a 24 hour service. Occupations of other land should be reported immediately to the police.
The council provides an approved Travellers site in Trewint Street, Earlsfield.
Travellers welcome £1.2m plans to expand Twyford site - Berkshire
From Get Reading
Residents of a sTatic travellers site in Twyford are welcoming £1.2 million expansion plans that will give more space to growing families.
Plans to add 0.65 hectares of land to the Twyford Orchards Travellers site in London Road went on display to the public, with a planning application expected in the next couple of months.
Pitch holder Frank Stevens said: “We’ve been here since the site first opened more than 30 years ago.
“The trouble now is some of the families have doubled up here.
“When I first came we had no kids so it was fine to have a small plot.
“It’s good to change with the times and it’ll be nice to have a decent sized plot. At the moment it’s a fire hazard as everything is too close together.”
Mr Stevens lives on his pitch with wife Fiona, 55, as well as his son David, 25, his fiancée Jade and their two-year-old girl Taylor-Lee.
The 58-year-old said: “I’m happy with the plans because my son would get his own pitch.
“The council have shown us all the plans.
“I know that some people are for it and others are against because they don’t want to have to move.”
The site opened in 1977 with 15 pitches accommodating one large mobile home, a tourer, washing facilities and a shed.
Today the site has 16 pitches, but four of the families are now trying to accommodate a new generation.
The plans, that went on display at Twyford Youth Centre on Tuesday, May 15, would increase the size of the pitches to have 10 on the existing site and 10 on neighbouring land, which the council is planning to purchase.
Carol Lovell, borough council senior strategy officer, said: “The site needs to come in line with modern standards to give them the relevant space.
“A pitch is defined by law and there are requirements for the distances between the structures.
“We have found that 80 to 90 per cent of the residents have been content with the proposals.”
Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for Gypsy Roma Traveller liaison, said: “It’s essential to manage the site in the future better than we have in the past.
“With this proposal we can wipe the slate clean.
“This expansion is only to accommodate families already on the site, with extended family receiving a new pitch. We are adamant no more people will move in.
“If we don’t do anything we would have to move families causing overcrowding off the site.
“We don’t want to have to do this and rather than destroy the family unit, the solution is to expand.”
The expansion could cost up to £1.2 million, with £575,000 coming from the Housing and Communities Agency.
Cllr Baker said: “We will try to strip the budget significantly so the cost to our taxpayers would be a lot smaller.
“Our aim is to do the work causing minimum disruption and we are taking a very robust case forward.
“It will be up to the planning committee to make a decision.”
The neighbouring land is owned by a group of trustees and may have to be seized in a compulsory purchase order if a sale cannot be agreed.
Through the planning process local residents will have the opportunity to comment on the plans further.
Residents of a sTatic travellers site in Twyford are welcoming £1.2 million expansion plans that will give more space to growing families.
Plans to add 0.65 hectares of land to the Twyford Orchards Travellers site in London Road went on display to the public, with a planning application expected in the next couple of months.
Pitch holder Frank Stevens said: “We’ve been here since the site first opened more than 30 years ago.
“The trouble now is some of the families have doubled up here.
“When I first came we had no kids so it was fine to have a small plot.
“It’s good to change with the times and it’ll be nice to have a decent sized plot. At the moment it’s a fire hazard as everything is too close together.”
Mr Stevens lives on his pitch with wife Fiona, 55, as well as his son David, 25, his fiancée Jade and their two-year-old girl Taylor-Lee.
The 58-year-old said: “I’m happy with the plans because my son would get his own pitch.
“The council have shown us all the plans.
“I know that some people are for it and others are against because they don’t want to have to move.”
The site opened in 1977 with 15 pitches accommodating one large mobile home, a tourer, washing facilities and a shed.
Today the site has 16 pitches, but four of the families are now trying to accommodate a new generation.
The plans, that went on display at Twyford Youth Centre on Tuesday, May 15, would increase the size of the pitches to have 10 on the existing site and 10 on neighbouring land, which the council is planning to purchase.
Carol Lovell, borough council senior strategy officer, said: “The site needs to come in line with modern standards to give them the relevant space.
“A pitch is defined by law and there are requirements for the distances between the structures.
“We have found that 80 to 90 per cent of the residents have been content with the proposals.”
Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for Gypsy Roma Traveller liaison, said: “It’s essential to manage the site in the future better than we have in the past.
“With this proposal we can wipe the slate clean.
“This expansion is only to accommodate families already on the site, with extended family receiving a new pitch. We are adamant no more people will move in.
“If we don’t do anything we would have to move families causing overcrowding off the site.
“We don’t want to have to do this and rather than destroy the family unit, the solution is to expand.”
The expansion could cost up to £1.2 million, with £575,000 coming from the Housing and Communities Agency.
Cllr Baker said: “We will try to strip the budget significantly so the cost to our taxpayers would be a lot smaller.
“Our aim is to do the work causing minimum disruption and we are taking a very robust case forward.
“It will be up to the planning committee to make a decision.”
The neighbouring land is owned by a group of trustees and may have to be seized in a compulsory purchase order if a sale cannot be agreed.
Through the planning process local residents will have the opportunity to comment on the plans further.
The Question of Forced Marriage in the Traveller Community.
From the Gypsy Message Board
Many of us were shocked to say the least by last weeks press items concetrating on comments made by Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North-West which lead to headlines including:
”We tackled grooming gangs. Now we have to confront forced marriage among Travellers”
“There are some communities where we have feared to tread, and by ‘we’ I mean every agency. I am hopeful that no longer exists. The last bastion for me is the Traveller community.
‘ Travellers are “the last bastion” of sexual taboos in Britain’
I WILL STOP THE GYPSY WEDDINGS SAYS ASIAN SEX GANG LAWYER… “I have become aware of massive issues of forced marriage in the traveller community. It is widespread.”
Many of us felt the shock wave go through the community. We wondered where Mr Afzal got his information from. It certainly wasn’t something that is part of British Romany Culture. We wrote to him and told him he must be mistaken, we have never heard of forced marriage as had been reported.
He replied that ”Regrettably, there is no community that doesn’t have incidents of forced marriage …… ”Interestingly, when we started raising awareness of forced marriage in other communities, the first reaction was denial…… Sadly no community is an entirely safe place for women and girls. As a Government Minister said “multi-cultural sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness…. We owe it to all victims in which ever community to provide protection.”
As we at GMB did not agree with his sentiment about us being in denial about forced marriage , our team spent a few days talking to people in particular elderly members of the Romany community to see if it was something they had heard of historically, going over records/ articles and other sources on marriage in the Traveller communities both historically and of these times to try and make sense of his statements.We intend to show that forced marriage is NOT embedded in Traveller history in this country and that any such cases that Mr Azfal might have got whisper of must be isolated and definitely are not widespread as has been published in the press and therefore his sweeping dangerous dialogue that can and will cause much harm to the reputation of all Travellers in the UK ,and add to the stereotypical misconceptions held by mainstream society, IS UNACCEPTABLE. We also have to question why he would make such a sweeping statement.
The Crown Prosecution Service brings up forced marriage under the heading of ‘Honour Based Violence and Forced Marriage’ It says ””Honour based violence” is a crime or incident, which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and/or community’.- This definition is supported by further explanatory text:- “Honour Based Violence” is a fundamental abuse of Human Rights.- There is no honour in the commission of murder, rape, kidnap and the many other acts, behaviour and conduct which make up “violence in the name of so-called honour”. They explain ”Examples may include murder, un-explained death (suicide), fear of or actual forced marriage, controlling sexual activity, domestic abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse), child abuse, rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, threats to kill, assault, harassment, forced abortion’….
For a starting point we only have to look around us. In today's world information is just a finger push away with a computer. As Mr Afzal did not entertain our own words to him, we will look at the words of others.
The word from the elders in the Romany community is that it does not happen and they have never heard of it. In the old days you either met at fairs or when you worked the fields etc.
Early works by Gypsy Parsons, Romany Rye, The Gypsies Advocate, The Gypsy Lore Society, none show any evidence to suggest a history of forced marriage in the Traveller community.
We have many history societies who have delved into past records e.g Romany Roads, they find press cuttings and records and no mention of forced marriage has come up.
We have Travellers Times and an Irish equivalent – no breaking headlines of forced marriage.
We have various established groups/societies and individuals that have lived or worked this field for years, but no big mention about forced marriages.
Today we have a whole host of modern Gypsy books written in-depth about social culture and growing up, developing in more modern times, nothing about forced marriage.
We nowadays have old news or documentaries re-run on television or on the net, we have lots of private documentaries aired by community members or commercial companies, the television or radio has regular items that involved aspects about Gypsies – no mention there either.
The press constantly disgorge any unsavoury item as often as they can, linked by any means to Gypsies – - yet until recently, no mention there either.
What is said about Gypsy Roma & Traveller marriages?
The Patrin Web says of Marriage in the Roma community ‘The first step in contemplating marriage is the selection of the bride. In many parts of the world, this is done just as it would be done in non-Roma society. The boy does the courting, and when the young couple agree to marry they become engaged and exchange modest gifts. Parents are consulted, but the decision is made by the young people.” No mention of forced marriage.
Dr Christopher Griffin, a lecturer in Sociology and Anthroplogy, was a warden on Londond Westway Gypsy & Traveller site from 1984 -1987.
He wrote ‘Free decisions to marry cause parent misery if their sons or daughters choice is not to their liking, whether the choice involves a Traveller or otherwise. He experience 15 Traveller marriages during that time. ”How many of the fifteen marriages from the Westaway between 1984 – 1987 were ‘arranged’ is not known. But one between and 18 year old boy and a sixteen year old girl at St. Francis of Assisi’s was definitely arranged between the families. Arranged families were said to be common, some of them fixed in childhood, which led some people to say ‘We’re like the Paki’s’. For this reason it is useful to distinguish between ‘matches’ made through independent brokers from ‘arrangements’ made by families themselves. It should not be thought that Traveller arrangements or matches preclude the option of refusal but, according to Barnes 1975, a girl is advised not to refuse to often if she is to avoid being thought of as ‘dirty’. however, for many parents the best marriages are those freely entered into or chosen -even if it is after elopement.
Elopement
Known also as ‘marriage by capture’ to anthropologists, elopement gets round family objections, especially on the girls side. The wedding follows the recapture, the boys punishment by her close male relatives, and an apology from his family to hers.I counted three such cases under the Westway. In one the couple knew each other for four months, in another the pair knew each other for less, and in the third had just fled Ireland. And, except in the first case, marriage followed within weeks of recapture.’ – no mention of forced marriage.
S.B Melch 1975 on arranged marriages
The main purpose behind arranged marriages amongst Travellers today is not to safeguard male interests so much as to safeguard the girl’s by securing a man who wont mistreat her. Such men are most likely to be found amongst ‘friends’ in the kindred. Men who, with their family, are known and vouched for and are not ‘strangers’ who’s families turn out to be ‘rough’ Brody (1973) found similar reasons for using matchmakers among country people.- no mention of forced marriage.
We have to look at why such vile statements are made in respect of the Traveller Communities.
It has been known and well publicised that Gypsies suffer racism far worse than any other ethnic minority group.
Trevor Phillips of the Commission for Racial Equality explains, “The situation for Gypsies and Travellers is incomparably worse than it is for any other ethnic group…and we let people get away with it.” (2004)
Travellers’ Times, (2003), pointed out that without facts, people rely entirely on stereotypes. This point is reflected also in police trainers’ comments.
The media try and use the word Gypsy or Traveller in the negative in any and every way possible and despite many years of work by Roma, Gypsy & Traveller organisations who have spent years getting to the truth of matters and dispelling myths, the press still get away with it. Only last week we complained to the press complaints commission about the headline ‘Big fat Gypsy Wife Killer’ which adorned the front page of the Scottish Sun and wasn’t even about a Gypsy.
Things have never changed for the Traveller community, they are still as misunderstood as they ever were.
SÃnéad nà ShuÃnéar Researcher and Translator, Dublin ”’ The Gypsy is the ‘Witch’ in European society today.
””Gaujos not only (consciously, deliberately) scapegoat the Gypsy, they also (subconsciously) project onto him, thus distancing themselves from things they hate about themselves. Anti Gypsyism is a crusade – and is seen as such by those who are active in it. To accept the Gypsy would be to accept everything that decent people reject.
Gaujos need a screen onto which they project their own negativity; if they were to give up that screen; they would have no choice but to give up this evil. That is why Gaujos everywhere manipulate Gypsies into conformity with Gaujos expectations. Individual Travellers in small numbers may readily be accepted into the fold since their ‘conversion’ is living proof of the correctness of our ‘model’ and at the same time seems to show that our objections to other members of the group are not racist in nature. But Gypsies as a group cannot be permitted into mainstream, despite universal Gaujos demands that they do so.
Gaujos need a screen onto which they project their own negativity; if they were to give up that screen; they would have no choice but to give up this evil. That is why Gaujos everywhere manipulate Gypsies into conformity with Gaujos expectations. Individual Travellers in small numbers may readily be accepted into the fold since their ‘conversion’ is living proof of the correctness of our ‘model’ and at the same time seems to show that our objections to other members of the group are not racist in nature. But Gypsies as a group cannot be permitted into mainstream, despite universal Gaujos demands that they do so.””
To conclude, We feel that Mr Azfal has based his knowledge on what he perceives to be a huge problem in the Traveller community without looking at the full facts or history of Travellers. Most times in the UK if you talk about Travellers it is Romany Gypsies or Irish Travellers. We refute his claims of widespread forced marriage. We note that the funding to tackle this problem has been made available by the government Domestic Programme Fund – Tackling forced marriage in the Traveller communities, developing options for work to challenge behaviour and support victims/potential victims. – We do not feel it is fair to use government funding in the name of Travellers as he obviously has not done his home work and by doing so he will unjustifiably stigmatise and alienate the Traveller community. We would suggest to Mr Azfal that such funding is used where it is needed.
Many of us were shocked to say the least by last weeks press items concetrating on comments made by Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North-West which lead to headlines including:
”We tackled grooming gangs. Now we have to confront forced marriage among Travellers”
“There are some communities where we have feared to tread, and by ‘we’ I mean every agency. I am hopeful that no longer exists. The last bastion for me is the Traveller community.
‘ Travellers are “the last bastion” of sexual taboos in Britain’
I WILL STOP THE GYPSY WEDDINGS SAYS ASIAN SEX GANG LAWYER… “I have become aware of massive issues of forced marriage in the traveller community. It is widespread.”
Many of us felt the shock wave go through the community. We wondered where Mr Afzal got his information from. It certainly wasn’t something that is part of British Romany Culture. We wrote to him and told him he must be mistaken, we have never heard of forced marriage as had been reported.
He replied that ”Regrettably, there is no community that doesn’t have incidents of forced marriage …… ”Interestingly, when we started raising awareness of forced marriage in other communities, the first reaction was denial…… Sadly no community is an entirely safe place for women and girls. As a Government Minister said “multi-cultural sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness…. We owe it to all victims in which ever community to provide protection.”
As we at GMB did not agree with his sentiment about us being in denial about forced marriage , our team spent a few days talking to people in particular elderly members of the Romany community to see if it was something they had heard of historically, going over records/ articles and other sources on marriage in the Traveller communities both historically and of these times to try and make sense of his statements.We intend to show that forced marriage is NOT embedded in Traveller history in this country and that any such cases that Mr Azfal might have got whisper of must be isolated and definitely are not widespread as has been published in the press and therefore his sweeping dangerous dialogue that can and will cause much harm to the reputation of all Travellers in the UK ,and add to the stereotypical misconceptions held by mainstream society, IS UNACCEPTABLE. We also have to question why he would make such a sweeping statement.
The Crown Prosecution Service brings up forced marriage under the heading of ‘Honour Based Violence and Forced Marriage’ It says ””Honour based violence” is a crime or incident, which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and/or community’.- This definition is supported by further explanatory text:- “Honour Based Violence” is a fundamental abuse of Human Rights.- There is no honour in the commission of murder, rape, kidnap and the many other acts, behaviour and conduct which make up “violence in the name of so-called honour”. They explain ”Examples may include murder, un-explained death (suicide), fear of or actual forced marriage, controlling sexual activity, domestic abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse), child abuse, rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, threats to kill, assault, harassment, forced abortion’….
For a starting point we only have to look around us. In today's world information is just a finger push away with a computer. As Mr Afzal did not entertain our own words to him, we will look at the words of others.
The word from the elders in the Romany community is that it does not happen and they have never heard of it. In the old days you either met at fairs or when you worked the fields etc.
Early works by Gypsy Parsons, Romany Rye, The Gypsies Advocate, The Gypsy Lore Society, none show any evidence to suggest a history of forced marriage in the Traveller community.
We have many history societies who have delved into past records e.g Romany Roads, they find press cuttings and records and no mention of forced marriage has come up.
We have Travellers Times and an Irish equivalent – no breaking headlines of forced marriage.
We have various established groups/societies and individuals that have lived or worked this field for years, but no big mention about forced marriages.
Today we have a whole host of modern Gypsy books written in-depth about social culture and growing up, developing in more modern times, nothing about forced marriage.
We nowadays have old news or documentaries re-run on television or on the net, we have lots of private documentaries aired by community members or commercial companies, the television or radio has regular items that involved aspects about Gypsies – no mention there either.
The press constantly disgorge any unsavoury item as often as they can, linked by any means to Gypsies – - yet until recently, no mention there either.
What is said about Gypsy Roma & Traveller marriages?
The Patrin Web says of Marriage in the Roma community ‘The first step in contemplating marriage is the selection of the bride. In many parts of the world, this is done just as it would be done in non-Roma society. The boy does the courting, and when the young couple agree to marry they become engaged and exchange modest gifts. Parents are consulted, but the decision is made by the young people.” No mention of forced marriage.
Dr Christopher Griffin, a lecturer in Sociology and Anthroplogy, was a warden on Londond Westway Gypsy & Traveller site from 1984 -1987.
He wrote ‘Free decisions to marry cause parent misery if their sons or daughters choice is not to their liking, whether the choice involves a Traveller or otherwise. He experience 15 Traveller marriages during that time. ”How many of the fifteen marriages from the Westaway between 1984 – 1987 were ‘arranged’ is not known. But one between and 18 year old boy and a sixteen year old girl at St. Francis of Assisi’s was definitely arranged between the families. Arranged families were said to be common, some of them fixed in childhood, which led some people to say ‘We’re like the Paki’s’. For this reason it is useful to distinguish between ‘matches’ made through independent brokers from ‘arrangements’ made by families themselves. It should not be thought that Traveller arrangements or matches preclude the option of refusal but, according to Barnes 1975, a girl is advised not to refuse to often if she is to avoid being thought of as ‘dirty’. however, for many parents the best marriages are those freely entered into or chosen -even if it is after elopement.
Elopement
Known also as ‘marriage by capture’ to anthropologists, elopement gets round family objections, especially on the girls side. The wedding follows the recapture, the boys punishment by her close male relatives, and an apology from his family to hers.I counted three such cases under the Westway. In one the couple knew each other for four months, in another the pair knew each other for less, and in the third had just fled Ireland. And, except in the first case, marriage followed within weeks of recapture.’ – no mention of forced marriage.
S.B Melch 1975 on arranged marriages
The main purpose behind arranged marriages amongst Travellers today is not to safeguard male interests so much as to safeguard the girl’s by securing a man who wont mistreat her. Such men are most likely to be found amongst ‘friends’ in the kindred. Men who, with their family, are known and vouched for and are not ‘strangers’ who’s families turn out to be ‘rough’ Brody (1973) found similar reasons for using matchmakers among country people.- no mention of forced marriage.
We have to look at why such vile statements are made in respect of the Traveller Communities.
It has been known and well publicised that Gypsies suffer racism far worse than any other ethnic minority group.
Trevor Phillips of the Commission for Racial Equality explains, “The situation for Gypsies and Travellers is incomparably worse than it is for any other ethnic group…and we let people get away with it.” (2004)
Travellers’ Times, (2003), pointed out that without facts, people rely entirely on stereotypes. This point is reflected also in police trainers’ comments.
The media try and use the word Gypsy or Traveller in the negative in any and every way possible and despite many years of work by Roma, Gypsy & Traveller organisations who have spent years getting to the truth of matters and dispelling myths, the press still get away with it. Only last week we complained to the press complaints commission about the headline ‘Big fat Gypsy Wife Killer’ which adorned the front page of the Scottish Sun and wasn’t even about a Gypsy.
Things have never changed for the Traveller community, they are still as misunderstood as they ever were.
SÃnéad nà ShuÃnéar Researcher and Translator, Dublin ”’ The Gypsy is the ‘Witch’ in European society today.
””Gaujos not only (consciously, deliberately) scapegoat the Gypsy, they also (subconsciously) project onto him, thus distancing themselves from things they hate about themselves. Anti Gypsyism is a crusade – and is seen as such by those who are active in it. To accept the Gypsy would be to accept everything that decent people reject.
Gaujos need a screen onto which they project their own negativity; if they were to give up that screen; they would have no choice but to give up this evil. That is why Gaujos everywhere manipulate Gypsies into conformity with Gaujos expectations. Individual Travellers in small numbers may readily be accepted into the fold since their ‘conversion’ is living proof of the correctness of our ‘model’ and at the same time seems to show that our objections to other members of the group are not racist in nature. But Gypsies as a group cannot be permitted into mainstream, despite universal Gaujos demands that they do so.
Gaujos need a screen onto which they project their own negativity; if they were to give up that screen; they would have no choice but to give up this evil. That is why Gaujos everywhere manipulate Gypsies into conformity with Gaujos expectations. Individual Travellers in small numbers may readily be accepted into the fold since their ‘conversion’ is living proof of the correctness of our ‘model’ and at the same time seems to show that our objections to other members of the group are not racist in nature. But Gypsies as a group cannot be permitted into mainstream, despite universal Gaujos demands that they do so.””
To conclude, We feel that Mr Azfal has based his knowledge on what he perceives to be a huge problem in the Traveller community without looking at the full facts or history of Travellers. Most times in the UK if you talk about Travellers it is Romany Gypsies or Irish Travellers. We refute his claims of widespread forced marriage. We note that the funding to tackle this problem has been made available by the government Domestic Programme Fund – Tackling forced marriage in the Traveller communities, developing options for work to challenge behaviour and support victims/potential victims. – We do not feel it is fair to use government funding in the name of Travellers as he obviously has not done his home work and by doing so he will unjustifiably stigmatise and alienate the Traveller community. We would suggest to Mr Azfal that such funding is used where it is needed.
Monday, 28 May 2012
Special meeting over plans for Gypsy camps - Bristol
From The Post
TORY councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have called for a special council meeting to discuss plans to create up to six official Gypsy camps in the area.
One of the possible sites is on a parcel of land near Ellsbridge House in Keynsham.
Other sites include:
â— Woollard Lane, Parcel 7100, Whitchurch;
â— Old Colliery Buildings, Stanton Wick;
â— Lower Bristol Road, Twerton;
â— Former Radstock Infant School canteen;
â— Station Road, Newbridge – as a Travelling Showman's Yard
B&NES council wants to set up permanent sites to make it easier to evict Gypsies and Travellers from illegal camps.
They have begun a consultation exercise to find out people's views but the issue has already sparked an outcry in some villages.
Tory councillors believe the issue is too important to be left to the council's ruling Lib Dem cabinet to make any decisions.
Tory leader Frances Haeberling said they support the need to find suitable Gypsy sites – but not if they are entirely inappropriate.
She said: "The site at Stanton Wick is within the greenbelt with no access to any necessary amenities, while the Keynsham site is currently established woodland on the busy A4 with serious highway access issues.
"In addition, the Radstock site has also been proposed as a potential site for new affordable housing, which many people in the area deem a more effective use of the site."
The council has organised five drop-in sessions where people can find out more about the proposals and give their views. They are being held from 3pm to 7pm at:
â— Radstock: Methodist Church Hall, Wednesday, June 6;
â— Stanton Drew: Parish Hall, Thursday, June 7;
â— Bath: The Brunswick Room, Guildhall, Wednesday, June 13;
â— Pensford: Pensford Memorial Hall, Publow Lane, Monday, June 18;
â— Keynsham: The Fear Hall, Tuesday, June 19.
Further information, including a comment form can be found on the council's website www.bathnes.gov. uk/planningfortravellers.
The consultation closes on 18th July 2012.
TORY councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have called for a special council meeting to discuss plans to create up to six official Gypsy camps in the area.
One of the possible sites is on a parcel of land near Ellsbridge House in Keynsham.
Other sites include:
â— Woollard Lane, Parcel 7100, Whitchurch;
â— Old Colliery Buildings, Stanton Wick;
â— Lower Bristol Road, Twerton;
â— Former Radstock Infant School canteen;
â— Station Road, Newbridge – as a Travelling Showman's Yard
B&NES council wants to set up permanent sites to make it easier to evict Gypsies and Travellers from illegal camps.
They have begun a consultation exercise to find out people's views but the issue has already sparked an outcry in some villages.
Tory councillors believe the issue is too important to be left to the council's ruling Lib Dem cabinet to make any decisions.
Tory leader Frances Haeberling said they support the need to find suitable Gypsy sites – but not if they are entirely inappropriate.
She said: "The site at Stanton Wick is within the greenbelt with no access to any necessary amenities, while the Keynsham site is currently established woodland on the busy A4 with serious highway access issues.
"In addition, the Radstock site has also been proposed as a potential site for new affordable housing, which many people in the area deem a more effective use of the site."
The council has organised five drop-in sessions where people can find out more about the proposals and give their views. They are being held from 3pm to 7pm at:
â— Radstock: Methodist Church Hall, Wednesday, June 6;
â— Stanton Drew: Parish Hall, Thursday, June 7;
â— Bath: The Brunswick Room, Guildhall, Wednesday, June 13;
â— Pensford: Pensford Memorial Hall, Publow Lane, Monday, June 18;
â— Keynsham: The Fear Hall, Tuesday, June 19.
Further information, including a comment form can be found on the council's website www.bathnes.gov. uk/planningfortravellers.
The consultation closes on 18th July 2012.
Learn of life on the move in Dorchester - Dorset
From the Dorset Echo
A TRADITIONAL gypsy caravan will take centre stage at an event in Dorchester for people to learn more about the Travelling community.
The Borough Gardens is hosting the event, on Friday, June 8, as part of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
Entry is free and there will be hands-on activities for all ages as well as displays for people to learn about the history of the communities who live life on the road.
People will be able to try their hands at peg making as well as taking a ride around the gardens on the back of a horse-drawn cart.
The Forest Play Bus is also setting up to run children’s activities.
In the afternoon Reverend Roger Redding, a chaplain to Gypsies and Travellers, will conduct a Baptismal Service in one of his last acts before retiring.
Musical accompaniment to the day will be provided by Dave Rawlins on the mandolin and there will be spellbinding stories from Michael Loader.
The event has been organised by the South West Dorset Multicultural Network in partnership with a range of other organisations including the ethnic minority and Traveller achievement service and community workers from NHS Dorset and the Dorset Healthcare University Foundation Trust.
Community development worker for West Dorset District Council Emma Scott said: “Gypsy Roma and Travellers are the largest ethnic minority community in the European Union with over 12 million people.
“In the UK, they are recognised ethnic minority communities and number 300,000.
“They are also the most marginalised and continue to suffer extreme levels of prejudice and discrimination.
“Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month was started in 2008, to highlight and help raise awareness of these communities and their valuable contributions to our society.
“It is also to help offset the negative stereotyping and prejudices that have led to hate crime, bullying and physical violence towards people identified as belonging to this community.”
Last year more than 100 people attended the event at the Borough Gardens with families and children of all ages enjoying themselves.
The 2012 event runs from noon to 4pm.
A TRADITIONAL gypsy caravan will take centre stage at an event in Dorchester for people to learn more about the Travelling community.
The Borough Gardens is hosting the event, on Friday, June 8, as part of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
Entry is free and there will be hands-on activities for all ages as well as displays for people to learn about the history of the communities who live life on the road.
People will be able to try their hands at peg making as well as taking a ride around the gardens on the back of a horse-drawn cart.
The Forest Play Bus is also setting up to run children’s activities.
In the afternoon Reverend Roger Redding, a chaplain to Gypsies and Travellers, will conduct a Baptismal Service in one of his last acts before retiring.
Musical accompaniment to the day will be provided by Dave Rawlins on the mandolin and there will be spellbinding stories from Michael Loader.
The event has been organised by the South West Dorset Multicultural Network in partnership with a range of other organisations including the ethnic minority and Traveller achievement service and community workers from NHS Dorset and the Dorset Healthcare University Foundation Trust.
Community development worker for West Dorset District Council Emma Scott said: “Gypsy Roma and Travellers are the largest ethnic minority community in the European Union with over 12 million people.
“In the UK, they are recognised ethnic minority communities and number 300,000.
“They are also the most marginalised and continue to suffer extreme levels of prejudice and discrimination.
“Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month was started in 2008, to highlight and help raise awareness of these communities and their valuable contributions to our society.
“It is also to help offset the negative stereotyping and prejudices that have led to hate crime, bullying and physical violence towards people identified as belonging to this community.”
Last year more than 100 people attended the event at the Borough Gardens with families and children of all ages enjoying themselves.
The 2012 event runs from noon to 4pm.
Travellers leave Paignton Green Trusted - Devon
From This Is South Devon
TRAVELLERS who had set up camp on Paignton Green left over the weekend.
The small group of Travellers had apparently told council officials they were on the Green for a 'holiday' after their arrival last week.
Torbay councillors had been called to an emergency meeting after the Travellers set up camp.
The Travellers with vehicles and caravans turned up on the Green overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, in a space on the North Green near the public toilets.
Councillors were being asked to attend a meeting at Torquay Town Hall to discuss a response.
Labour councillor Darren Cowell wrote on Twitter: "#Torbay must resolve problem of travellers at sites across the Bay. Now on #Paignton Green! A permanent site had to be found. But where?"
TorbayLibDems added: "@Torbay_Council conducting Health & Welfare checks. Eviction action will take a week, or maybe two...
"Travellers appear to have gained access onto Paignton Green North, where the Radio 1 Roadshow were leaving.
"Councillors were advised that developing a permanent Travellers site would not give @Torbay_Council any legal advantage."
TRAVELLERS who had set up camp on Paignton Green left over the weekend.
The small group of Travellers had apparently told council officials they were on the Green for a 'holiday' after their arrival last week.
Torbay councillors had been called to an emergency meeting after the Travellers set up camp.
The Travellers with vehicles and caravans turned up on the Green overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, in a space on the North Green near the public toilets.
Councillors were being asked to attend a meeting at Torquay Town Hall to discuss a response.
Labour councillor Darren Cowell wrote on Twitter: "#Torbay must resolve problem of travellers at sites across the Bay. Now on #Paignton Green! A permanent site had to be found. But where?"
TorbayLibDems added: "@Torbay_Council conducting Health & Welfare checks. Eviction action will take a week, or maybe two...
"Travellers appear to have gained access onto Paignton Green North, where the Radio 1 Roadshow were leaving.
"Councillors were advised that developing a permanent Travellers site would not give @Torbay_Council any legal advantage."
Date set for decision over Staffordshire Travellers’ camp
From the Express and Star
Travellers who want to set up camp in a field bordering the site of the Staffordshire Hoard discovery will find out within the next couple of weeks if it can go ahead having had to resubmit their plans, it emerged today.
The Maughan family want to live on the site near Hammerwich, on the border of Burntwood and Brownhills, which they bought nearly three years ago. But a decision was put back after it was found they had not included all the land they owned on the application form.
Permission will now be considered by Lichfield District Council on June 11.
The plot was bought at auction by Terry Maughan. He and his family were previously based at the Fishpond Caravan Site in Featherstone but have been thrown off the site by Mr Maughan’s uncle, according to agents acting on the family’s behalf.
They have applied to change the use of the land, on the south side of Watling Street, from agricultural to a site for six mobile homes on four plots with sceptic tanks and utility rooms.
The application was made by Mr Maughan on behalf of his estranged wife Bernadette Maughan and her sister Anne-Marie Maughan.
Planning officer Sue Hodgkinson said the family had failed to include all their land which meant the application, due to have been heard in April, was put back for eight weeks.
But she said the new information did not affect the size of the living area where the caravans will be set up.
Before Christmas the authority had been forced to launch enforcement action when work was carried out to level the ground and re-seed it.
The application has upset residents and metal detecting enthusiast Terry Herbert, whose efforts led to the discovery of the Anglo-Saxon hoard of gold and silver in 2009, because of its proximity to the historic find.
Planning agent Alison Heine, representing the Maughans, said people had been alarmed unnecessarily, insisting this was “not a Dale Farm situation.”
Travellers who want to set up camp in a field bordering the site of the Staffordshire Hoard discovery will find out within the next couple of weeks if it can go ahead having had to resubmit their plans, it emerged today.
The Maughan family want to live on the site near Hammerwich, on the border of Burntwood and Brownhills, which they bought nearly three years ago. But a decision was put back after it was found they had not included all the land they owned on the application form.
Permission will now be considered by Lichfield District Council on June 11.
The plot was bought at auction by Terry Maughan. He and his family were previously based at the Fishpond Caravan Site in Featherstone but have been thrown off the site by Mr Maughan’s uncle, according to agents acting on the family’s behalf.
They have applied to change the use of the land, on the south side of Watling Street, from agricultural to a site for six mobile homes on four plots with sceptic tanks and utility rooms.
The application was made by Mr Maughan on behalf of his estranged wife Bernadette Maughan and her sister Anne-Marie Maughan.
Planning officer Sue Hodgkinson said the family had failed to include all their land which meant the application, due to have been heard in April, was put back for eight weeks.
But she said the new information did not affect the size of the living area where the caravans will be set up.
Before Christmas the authority had been forced to launch enforcement action when work was carried out to level the ground and re-seed it.
The application has upset residents and metal detecting enthusiast Terry Herbert, whose efforts led to the discovery of the Anglo-Saxon hoard of gold and silver in 2009, because of its proximity to the historic find.
Planning agent Alison Heine, representing the Maughans, said people had been alarmed unnecessarily, insisting this was “not a Dale Farm situation.”
Uddens Motion Fails To Remove Proposed Gypsy/Traveller Site From Plans - Dorset
From Wimborne People
The original motion that accompanied the six thousand plus signature petition, collected by The Friends Of Uddens Woodland, called for the removal of the Uddens site from the process. However, this did not go ahead after a quick amendment to the motion brought before Dorset District Council (DDC) to gain cross party support removed the proposal altogether, leaving the Uddens site still on the agenda for proposed sites.
The motion was changed so local residents could be reassured that the grant is not site specific and the legitimate concerns of residents would be taken into account before any final recommendations were brought to DDC. The motion was proposed by Cllr Janet Dover and seconded by Councillor Spencer Flower who asked for the amendments before agreeing to second the motion.
Councillor Flower then accepted the petition on behalf of East Dorset District Council (EDDC) and assured Friends Of Uddens Woodland it would be taken into consideration when EDDC make their decision on which sites they intend to take forward to the next stage.
So what does this mean for the Uddens site? It means the site is still under consideration and could still be picked to house the 24-pitch Gypsy and Traveller site despite significant opposition, but at least DDC EDDC councillors are now aware of the growing opposition.
The original motion that accompanied the six thousand plus signature petition, collected by The Friends Of Uddens Woodland, called for the removal of the Uddens site from the process. However, this did not go ahead after a quick amendment to the motion brought before Dorset District Council (DDC) to gain cross party support removed the proposal altogether, leaving the Uddens site still on the agenda for proposed sites.
The motion was changed so local residents could be reassured that the grant is not site specific and the legitimate concerns of residents would be taken into account before any final recommendations were brought to DDC. The motion was proposed by Cllr Janet Dover and seconded by Councillor Spencer Flower who asked for the amendments before agreeing to second the motion.
Councillor Flower then accepted the petition on behalf of East Dorset District Council (EDDC) and assured Friends Of Uddens Woodland it would be taken into consideration when EDDC make their decision on which sites they intend to take forward to the next stage.
So what does this mean for the Uddens site? It means the site is still under consideration and could still be picked to house the 24-pitch Gypsy and Traveller site despite significant opposition, but at least DDC EDDC councillors are now aware of the growing opposition.
ASA to formally investigate 'Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier' ad campaign
From the Guardian
The Advertising Standards Authority is to formally investigate Channel 4's controversial "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" advertising for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, after the Traveller community successfully appealed the regulator's original decision.
In March the ASA dismissed more than 370 complaints against the campaign, which featured the words "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" printed over images of Gypsy boys and girls, deciding that an investigation was not warranted as Channel 4's TV and billboard ads were not likely to cause widespread offence.
However, the ASA said on Monday its original decision to clear the campaign was "flawed" and admitted it never knew that one of the complainants was the Irish Traveller Movement of Britain, a "material fact to which they should have had regard".
Legal representatives of the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, and several co-complainants, appealed to the ASA's independent reviewer, Sir Hayden Phillips, to reassess the decision and consider an investigation.
Phillips, who cannot force the ASA to conduct a formal investigation, told the regulator's council he believed that the ad campaign should be subject to a full investigation.
The ASA council, which met on Friday, has now asked the regulator to open an investigation to see if Channel 4's ad campaign is in breach of advertising regulations relating to widespread offence.
The ASA will investigate the ITMB complaint, and the issues raised by co-complaints submitted for review by the traveller body's solicitors, but not the 371 other complaints the advertising also watchdog received.
However, it is understood that all of the complaints received by the ASA were of the same nature.
"Following a recommendation from the independent reviewer of ASA adjudications, the ASA council has decided that its original decision not to conduct a formal investigation into complaints about the Channel 4 Broadcasting Ltd's advertising campaign for the TV programme Big Fat Gypsy Wedding was flawed," said a spokeswoman for the ASA. " It has decided that a formal investigation should now commence."
"This is a great victory for Travellers and Gypsies, and it may prove a turning point as to how Travellers and Gypsies are portrayed in the media," said Yvonne MacNamara, director of the ITMB.
"Channel 4 has made a fortune out of their documentaries, which many Travellers and Gypsies believe have invaded and misrepresented their lives. We hope that today's decision may herald an end to the negative caricaturing of Travellers and Gypsies in the wider media."
The ITMB complaint and appeal process was handled by the legal firm Howe & Co Solicitors.
"The ASA has clearly been forced to look at this matter again and realised how serious it is," said David Enright, a partner at Howe & Co. "We hope that their investigation will now result in new guidance on adverts about Travellers and Gypsies."
The Advertising Standards Authority is to formally investigate Channel 4's controversial "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" advertising for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, after the Traveller community successfully appealed the regulator's original decision.
In March the ASA dismissed more than 370 complaints against the campaign, which featured the words "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" printed over images of Gypsy boys and girls, deciding that an investigation was not warranted as Channel 4's TV and billboard ads were not likely to cause widespread offence.
However, the ASA said on Monday its original decision to clear the campaign was "flawed" and admitted it never knew that one of the complainants was the Irish Traveller Movement of Britain, a "material fact to which they should have had regard".
Legal representatives of the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, and several co-complainants, appealed to the ASA's independent reviewer, Sir Hayden Phillips, to reassess the decision and consider an investigation.
Phillips, who cannot force the ASA to conduct a formal investigation, told the regulator's council he believed that the ad campaign should be subject to a full investigation.
The ASA council, which met on Friday, has now asked the regulator to open an investigation to see if Channel 4's ad campaign is in breach of advertising regulations relating to widespread offence.
The ASA will investigate the ITMB complaint, and the issues raised by co-complaints submitted for review by the traveller body's solicitors, but not the 371 other complaints the advertising also watchdog received.
However, it is understood that all of the complaints received by the ASA were of the same nature.
"Following a recommendation from the independent reviewer of ASA adjudications, the ASA council has decided that its original decision not to conduct a formal investigation into complaints about the Channel 4 Broadcasting Ltd's advertising campaign for the TV programme Big Fat Gypsy Wedding was flawed," said a spokeswoman for the ASA. " It has decided that a formal investigation should now commence."
"This is a great victory for Travellers and Gypsies, and it may prove a turning point as to how Travellers and Gypsies are portrayed in the media," said Yvonne MacNamara, director of the ITMB.
"Channel 4 has made a fortune out of their documentaries, which many Travellers and Gypsies believe have invaded and misrepresented their lives. We hope that today's decision may herald an end to the negative caricaturing of Travellers and Gypsies in the wider media."
The ITMB complaint and appeal process was handled by the legal firm Howe & Co Solicitors.
"The ASA has clearly been forced to look at this matter again and realised how serious it is," said David Enright, a partner at Howe & Co. "We hope that their investigation will now result in new guidance on adverts about Travellers and Gypsies."
The big fat Gypsy feast - Hull
From the Hull Daily Mail
THE Gypsy Traveller Cultural Experience will be hosting a Cooking Pot event this month.
The event will including cooking demonstrations, give hands-on experience and showcase traditional Gypsy Traveller cooking.
There will also be an array of craft demonstrations.
The event is at Community Enterprise Centre in Ventnor Street, off Newland Avenue, on May 31 from 11am to 2pm.
THE Gypsy Traveller Cultural Experience will be hosting a Cooking Pot event this month.
The event will including cooking demonstrations, give hands-on experience and showcase traditional Gypsy Traveller cooking.
There will also be an array of craft demonstrations.
The event is at Community Enterprise Centre in Ventnor Street, off Newland Avenue, on May 31 from 11am to 2pm.
Appleby Fair 2012 Map
From Cumbria Constabulary
Appleby Horse Fair, which runs this year from 7-13 June, can attract up to 40,000 visitors and Gypsies and Travellers who travel from all across Europe to celebrate the ancient traditional holiday. Horse drawn trailers and caravans will use the main roads into Appleby, including the busy A66 plus other roads across the north of England, and the police are warning all motorists to be extra vigilant this year in order to prevent any accidents.
Chief Inspector Kevin Greenhow, who heads the Road Policing Unit, said: “We are making the message clear this year, be careful of what is round the corner. Horse drawn vehicles do move slowly and you can go round a bend and be faced with slow moving traffic. “We advise all drivers, no matter what type of vehicle they are driving to be extremely cautious around this time. Large numbers of horse drawn vehicles will be on the county’s A and B roads and more consideration will be needed when overtaking. Think, could there is a horse drawn vehicle in front? If everyone reduces their speed, allows a little more time for journeys and is considerate, we should dramatically reduce the likelihood of an accident.
“I would also like to appeal the divers of these caravans and trailers to carefully consider your safest route possible, whilst making yourself as visible to other motorists as practicable. The A66 is a particularly important route for haulage vehicles and we are doing all that we reasonably can to make sure these messages are communicated effectively to that industry, so that these very professional drivers are aware of the dangers and can take extra care”.
Appleby Horse Fair, which runs this year from 7-13 June, can attract up to 40,000 visitors and Gypsies and Travellers who travel from all across Europe to celebrate the ancient traditional holiday. Horse drawn trailers and caravans will use the main roads into Appleby, including the busy A66 plus other roads across the north of England, and the police are warning all motorists to be extra vigilant this year in order to prevent any accidents.
Chief Inspector Kevin Greenhow, who heads the Road Policing Unit, said: “We are making the message clear this year, be careful of what is round the corner. Horse drawn vehicles do move slowly and you can go round a bend and be faced with slow moving traffic. “We advise all drivers, no matter what type of vehicle they are driving to be extremely cautious around this time. Large numbers of horse drawn vehicles will be on the county’s A and B roads and more consideration will be needed when overtaking. Think, could there is a horse drawn vehicle in front? If everyone reduces their speed, allows a little more time for journeys and is considerate, we should dramatically reduce the likelihood of an accident.
“I would also like to appeal the divers of these caravans and trailers to carefully consider your safest route possible, whilst making yourself as visible to other motorists as practicable. The A66 is a particularly important route for haulage vehicles and we are doing all that we reasonably can to make sure these messages are communicated effectively to that industry, so that these very professional drivers are aware of the dangers and can take extra care”.
Permission given for Travellers site on green belt land in Shalford - Surrey
From Eagle Radio
Three Gypsy plots have been given the go ahead on green belt land in Shalford, despite objections from environmental campaigners.
The land on East Shalford Lane already has a notorious history - Guildford council spent a large sum of money and several years evicting an illegal Traveller site from there in 1989.
Over 20 years later the authority faced the same dilema, but this time with a different outcome.
A mobile home's been on site for 3 years, that's now allowed to stay and two more plots created because the council hasn't met its targets on providing such areas.
It decided this case was different because planning rules have changed and there's an urgent need to give land to Travellers.
Three Gypsy plots have been given the go ahead on green belt land in Shalford, despite objections from environmental campaigners.
The land on East Shalford Lane already has a notorious history - Guildford council spent a large sum of money and several years evicting an illegal Traveller site from there in 1989.
Over 20 years later the authority faced the same dilema, but this time with a different outcome.
A mobile home's been on site for 3 years, that's now allowed to stay and two more plots created because the council hasn't met its targets on providing such areas.
It decided this case was different because planning rules have changed and there's an urgent need to give land to Travellers.
Traveller group leave midden at Castle Park - Aberdeenshire
From the Ellon Times
NEIGHBOURS of an evacuated |Travellers’ encampment have reacted with outrage after the group left a tip in their wake.
The group, which arrived in the town last week, have left an extensive collection of garden cuttings, childrens’ toys, dog dirt and various other rubbish at the site, between Castle Park and Balmacassie Industrial Estates.
It is understood that the group had been taking work locally performing garden work. An Aberdeenshire Council spokesperson confirmed that the council had cleared up the site, and that it had cost in the region of £900 to make good the mess left behind, with 2.6 tonnes of rubbish removed.
Ellon’s councillors have reacted angrily to the news of the mess, and the costs. Cllr Rob Merson told the Times that he had spoken to the council’s environmental health service about having the mess removed.
“Having sought casual gardening work throughout the area, the families have now departed leaving piles of sawn timber, garden debris and household waste at the entrance to the Balmacassie woodland,” he said. “The whole area is strewn with bottles, cans, items of clothing and excrement.
“Once again it is the local residents and Council Tax payers who will be forced to bear the cost, and Council staff who will have to undertake the task of clearing this mess.
“However, it is those who provide the work which attracts the Travelling community to return to the area, and I would urge householders to use reputable local businesses rather than employ ‘landscape gardeners’, ‘tree surgeons’ and ‘tarring contractors’.
who come to the door looking for work. It is their garden debris that has been left lying.”
Cllr Gillian Owen, who has previously stated her support for a legal halting site in Ellon, said that the problem was symptomatic of a lack of halting sites in the area.
“The state that they have left that area is an absolute disgrace,” she said. “It would appear that this group have been going around Castle Park offering a gardening service and when they have carried out any work they have emptied garden waste up on Balmacassie and that is where it remains, for us the residents to pay for it to be uploaded and disposed off.
“I know that a council colleague referred to the Potterton site and how that Traveller group had left it in a reasonably clean and tidy state, yet the group at Castle Park have seen fit to leave rubbish and the like all around. I know I am unpopular when I reiterate the need for a Transit site but it is for that reason that we do need a transit site, so these types of illegal camps can be stopped from day one.”
Cllr Richard Thomson said: “It’s disappointing that this particular group of travellers have chosen to behave so irresponsibly, leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill for cleaning up after them. With rights come responsibilities, which have been blatantly disregarded in this instance. I hope they will be pursued for the clean-up costs to the fullest extent of what is practical.”
NEIGHBOURS of an evacuated |Travellers’ encampment have reacted with outrage after the group left a tip in their wake.
The group, which arrived in the town last week, have left an extensive collection of garden cuttings, childrens’ toys, dog dirt and various other rubbish at the site, between Castle Park and Balmacassie Industrial Estates.
It is understood that the group had been taking work locally performing garden work. An Aberdeenshire Council spokesperson confirmed that the council had cleared up the site, and that it had cost in the region of £900 to make good the mess left behind, with 2.6 tonnes of rubbish removed.
Ellon’s councillors have reacted angrily to the news of the mess, and the costs. Cllr Rob Merson told the Times that he had spoken to the council’s environmental health service about having the mess removed.
“Having sought casual gardening work throughout the area, the families have now departed leaving piles of sawn timber, garden debris and household waste at the entrance to the Balmacassie woodland,” he said. “The whole area is strewn with bottles, cans, items of clothing and excrement.
“Once again it is the local residents and Council Tax payers who will be forced to bear the cost, and Council staff who will have to undertake the task of clearing this mess.
“However, it is those who provide the work which attracts the Travelling community to return to the area, and I would urge householders to use reputable local businesses rather than employ ‘landscape gardeners’, ‘tree surgeons’ and ‘tarring contractors’.
who come to the door looking for work. It is their garden debris that has been left lying.”
Cllr Gillian Owen, who has previously stated her support for a legal halting site in Ellon, said that the problem was symptomatic of a lack of halting sites in the area.
“The state that they have left that area is an absolute disgrace,” she said. “It would appear that this group have been going around Castle Park offering a gardening service and when they have carried out any work they have emptied garden waste up on Balmacassie and that is where it remains, for us the residents to pay for it to be uploaded and disposed off.
“I know that a council colleague referred to the Potterton site and how that Traveller group had left it in a reasonably clean and tidy state, yet the group at Castle Park have seen fit to leave rubbish and the like all around. I know I am unpopular when I reiterate the need for a Transit site but it is for that reason that we do need a transit site, so these types of illegal camps can be stopped from day one.”
Cllr Richard Thomson said: “It’s disappointing that this particular group of travellers have chosen to behave so irresponsibly, leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill for cleaning up after them. With rights come responsibilities, which have been blatantly disregarded in this instance. I hope they will be pursued for the clean-up costs to the fullest extent of what is practical.”
Travellers arrive in Fareham - Hampshire
From Portsmouth.co.uk
TRAVELLERS have turned up on council-owned land in Fareham.
The group has settled on land next to Fareham Leisure Centre in Park Lane. Fareham Borough Council said it is working to remove the group within a week.
Council leader Sean Woodward said: ‘I have heard from a number of residents who walk at that site daily. They are most upset about it because they feel intimidated. Our zero tolerance to Travellers continues. We will have them gone within a week.’
Resident Jennifer Zeffertt, 70, said: ‘It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in discussion with the Traveller community.
‘In the aftermath the grass will be turned up, there will be rubbish left and I don’t even want to mention toilet facilities.’
TRAVELLERS have turned up on council-owned land in Fareham.
The group has settled on land next to Fareham Leisure Centre in Park Lane. Fareham Borough Council said it is working to remove the group within a week.
Council leader Sean Woodward said: ‘I have heard from a number of residents who walk at that site daily. They are most upset about it because they feel intimidated. Our zero tolerance to Travellers continues. We will have them gone within a week.’
Resident Jennifer Zeffertt, 70, said: ‘It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in discussion with the Traveller community.
‘In the aftermath the grass will be turned up, there will be rubbish left and I don’t even want to mention toilet facilities.’
Sunday, 27 May 2012
My Big Fat Gypsy memoir - Paddy Doherty
From the Hereford Times
Paddy Doherty, winner of Celebrity Big Brother and star of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, reveals how he loved and lost five children, battled depression, drink and drugs and has emerged from his Irish Traveller roots to become an unlikely celebrity, as his memoir, Hard Knocks & Soft Spots, is published.
Irish Traveller and 2011 Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty tucks into a chip butty as we meet to chat about his latest high-profile venture, which is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
The time he bit off someone's finger, had part of his own ear gnawed off, went through reconstructive surgery after having his jaw shattered and narrowly escaped death when he was shot in the head are just few of the anecdotes featured in the former bare-knuckle fighter's brutal life story, Hard Knocks & Soft Spots.
The fact that he can't read or write didn't put him off launching his ghost-written autobiography, which leaves no gory stone of his life unturned.
Meeting him today, Doherty's scrubbed up well in a navy Ralph Lauren shirt, pressed jeans and shiny leather shoes, but the scars on his face are an undeniable give away of the violence and hardships he's lived through.
Yet Doherty, 53, won the hearts of millions when he showed his softer side in Celebrity Big Brother, becoming confidante to the likes of Kerry Katona and forming an unlikely friendship with Sally Bercow, the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
"I am what I am," he says of his relatively new-found celebrity. "I suppose I'm famous but I had problems coming to terms with that for a long time. When thousands of people vote for you, you have to become somebody."
He and Bercow went on to appear in a Wife Swap-style documentary, When Paddy Met Sally, and are about to start filming a new around-the-world series of adventures together for Channel 5.
"When I first met her I loved her voice. She made out she was rough but she wasn't. She was what we Travellers call a horse of a different colour, she wasn't what she made herself out to be, and we ended up having many interesting conversations."
Bercow and her three children have since been to stay with Doherty and his family at his chalet on a campsite in north Wales, he's visited the Houses of Parliament and they remain good friends, he says.
He believes TV shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding have changed the public's perception of Travellers and vice-versa.
"My community loved it. We didn't act it out. Then when I won Big Brother, the response of celebration I got from thousands of Travellers was unreal. I took a big gamble and came out trumps."
But there were criticisms from some Travellers who felt the Gypsy series misrepresented them, I suggest.
"Listen, you put 500 apples in a barrel and you are going to get three or four rotten ones. It don't mean the 500 are rotten, does it? The ones who criticised weren't the ones who were in the programme."
He says there is a lot of secrecy within the travelling community as to their cultures and traditions. Children are brought up in the strict Catholic faith, men are the breadwinners, women keep the home and families stick together, whatever happens.
However, his admissions in the book about the barbaric violence, scrapes with the law and some of the methods used to make money will surely not endear him to law-abiding citizens.
Selling dodgy cars at auction, burning piles of tyres to reclaim the steel inside them to sell for scrap and using stolen rings on his wedding day are among the many events recorded.
"My honesty will get me into a lot of trouble," he says, laughing. "But that's the life I lived."
Doherty had a nomadic upbringing in the North and Midlands, moving from Manchester to various sites in and around Birmingham. He hardly went to school and beyond the gates of the Travellers' camps encountered hostility.
His grandparents posed as his parents during his early years and it wasn't until Doherty was a teenager, and sent to live with his 'sister' Maggie and her family, that the truth emerged - Maggie was actually his mother but, as she'd been unmarried when she had him, it had been kept quiet to avoid bringing shame on the family.
While much of the book focuses on the violent side of his life - the brawls, bare-knuckle fights, gangsters and protection rackets he endeavoured to stop - Doherty has also experienced great human sadness with his wife of 34 years, Roseanne.
After having five healthy children, their next four died from a rare genetic disorder called Fraser syndrome.
The first time it happened, doctors said afterwards they could test for the condition during the early stages of pregnancy, but as Catholics the couple didn't believe in abortion, so opted not to.
Roseanne carried all the babies to term and nearly died from complications during one of the births. Her last pregnancy, with twins, ended with one being stillborn.
"She had a couple of breakdowns through it all," Doherty recalls. "You get to the stage where you are sick of all the white coffins and you want to escape from everything, but you've got to put a smile on your face and pretend that you're OK."
The family was dealt another massive blow when their eldest son Patrick, 18, was killed in a road accident with his cousin and a friend in 1996. Doherty sought solace in drugs and alcohol.
"I didn't cope with it. I'd sleep at the grave, go down there and play his music and escaped from everything by hitting drugs. I was on cocaine, Ecstasy and LSD."
As grief enveloped the family, he and Roseanne drifted apart.
"Roseanne would come to me and cry but I couldn't cry to her. I'd always been told not to show my emotions so I'd walk down the road and roar my brains out when I was alone."
His weight plummeted from 17 stones to seven as he continued to drown his sorrows. Then one day in 1997 he saw an advert for the Manchester marathon and it reignited his fighting spirit.
"It felt like a small light had switched back on inside me. I had a purpose. Each day I trained a little more and each day I felt a little fitter. The fog in my head was gradually clearing."
Doherty completed the marathon in under four hours and has never again touched drugs. His marriage is now stronger than ever and he remains close to his five surviving children and 15 grandchildren.
He has also found God and, as a born-again Christian, says he couldn't have survived without his faith. "If I didn't have God in my life, I'd be dead now."
Hard Knocks & Soft Spots, by Paddy Doherty, is published by Ebury, priced £16.99. Available now.
Paddy Doherty, winner of Celebrity Big Brother and star of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, reveals how he loved and lost five children, battled depression, drink and drugs and has emerged from his Irish Traveller roots to become an unlikely celebrity, as his memoir, Hard Knocks & Soft Spots, is published.
Irish Traveller and 2011 Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty tucks into a chip butty as we meet to chat about his latest high-profile venture, which is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
The time he bit off someone's finger, had part of his own ear gnawed off, went through reconstructive surgery after having his jaw shattered and narrowly escaped death when he was shot in the head are just few of the anecdotes featured in the former bare-knuckle fighter's brutal life story, Hard Knocks & Soft Spots.
The fact that he can't read or write didn't put him off launching his ghost-written autobiography, which leaves no gory stone of his life unturned.
Meeting him today, Doherty's scrubbed up well in a navy Ralph Lauren shirt, pressed jeans and shiny leather shoes, but the scars on his face are an undeniable give away of the violence and hardships he's lived through.
Yet Doherty, 53, won the hearts of millions when he showed his softer side in Celebrity Big Brother, becoming confidante to the likes of Kerry Katona and forming an unlikely friendship with Sally Bercow, the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
"I am what I am," he says of his relatively new-found celebrity. "I suppose I'm famous but I had problems coming to terms with that for a long time. When thousands of people vote for you, you have to become somebody."
He and Bercow went on to appear in a Wife Swap-style documentary, When Paddy Met Sally, and are about to start filming a new around-the-world series of adventures together for Channel 5.
"When I first met her I loved her voice. She made out she was rough but she wasn't. She was what we Travellers call a horse of a different colour, she wasn't what she made herself out to be, and we ended up having many interesting conversations."
Bercow and her three children have since been to stay with Doherty and his family at his chalet on a campsite in north Wales, he's visited the Houses of Parliament and they remain good friends, he says.
He believes TV shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding have changed the public's perception of Travellers and vice-versa.
"My community loved it. We didn't act it out. Then when I won Big Brother, the response of celebration I got from thousands of Travellers was unreal. I took a big gamble and came out trumps."
But there were criticisms from some Travellers who felt the Gypsy series misrepresented them, I suggest.
"Listen, you put 500 apples in a barrel and you are going to get three or four rotten ones. It don't mean the 500 are rotten, does it? The ones who criticised weren't the ones who were in the programme."
He says there is a lot of secrecy within the travelling community as to their cultures and traditions. Children are brought up in the strict Catholic faith, men are the breadwinners, women keep the home and families stick together, whatever happens.
However, his admissions in the book about the barbaric violence, scrapes with the law and some of the methods used to make money will surely not endear him to law-abiding citizens.
Selling dodgy cars at auction, burning piles of tyres to reclaim the steel inside them to sell for scrap and using stolen rings on his wedding day are among the many events recorded.
"My honesty will get me into a lot of trouble," he says, laughing. "But that's the life I lived."
Doherty had a nomadic upbringing in the North and Midlands, moving from Manchester to various sites in and around Birmingham. He hardly went to school and beyond the gates of the Travellers' camps encountered hostility.
His grandparents posed as his parents during his early years and it wasn't until Doherty was a teenager, and sent to live with his 'sister' Maggie and her family, that the truth emerged - Maggie was actually his mother but, as she'd been unmarried when she had him, it had been kept quiet to avoid bringing shame on the family.
While much of the book focuses on the violent side of his life - the brawls, bare-knuckle fights, gangsters and protection rackets he endeavoured to stop - Doherty has also experienced great human sadness with his wife of 34 years, Roseanne.
After having five healthy children, their next four died from a rare genetic disorder called Fraser syndrome.
The first time it happened, doctors said afterwards they could test for the condition during the early stages of pregnancy, but as Catholics the couple didn't believe in abortion, so opted not to.
Roseanne carried all the babies to term and nearly died from complications during one of the births. Her last pregnancy, with twins, ended with one being stillborn.
"She had a couple of breakdowns through it all," Doherty recalls. "You get to the stage where you are sick of all the white coffins and you want to escape from everything, but you've got to put a smile on your face and pretend that you're OK."
The family was dealt another massive blow when their eldest son Patrick, 18, was killed in a road accident with his cousin and a friend in 1996. Doherty sought solace in drugs and alcohol.
"I didn't cope with it. I'd sleep at the grave, go down there and play his music and escaped from everything by hitting drugs. I was on cocaine, Ecstasy and LSD."
As grief enveloped the family, he and Roseanne drifted apart.
"Roseanne would come to me and cry but I couldn't cry to her. I'd always been told not to show my emotions so I'd walk down the road and roar my brains out when I was alone."
His weight plummeted from 17 stones to seven as he continued to drown his sorrows. Then one day in 1997 he saw an advert for the Manchester marathon and it reignited his fighting spirit.
"It felt like a small light had switched back on inside me. I had a purpose. Each day I trained a little more and each day I felt a little fitter. The fog in my head was gradually clearing."
Doherty completed the marathon in under four hours and has never again touched drugs. His marriage is now stronger than ever and he remains close to his five surviving children and 15 grandchildren.
He has also found God and, as a born-again Christian, says he couldn't have survived without his faith. "If I didn't have God in my life, I'd be dead now."
Hard Knocks & Soft Spots, by Paddy Doherty, is published by Ebury, priced £16.99. Available now.
New Travellers' site could be full in two years - Bedfordshire
From Bedfordshire On Sunday
A councillor has warned that a contentious Travellers site could be full in just two years leaving the council to find more space to meet land requirements.
Cllr Tom Wootton claims that although planning permission has now been given for the Meadow Lane site in Bedford, Bedford Borough Council will be left looking for another large site in the next few years as the 15 pitches at Meadow Lane and three pitches at the Kempston Hardwick site will be full.
Cllr Wootton, who represents Wyboston ward, said: “Building Meadow Lane gets us out of jail for a couple of years but when it is full the council will have to start looking again.” A spokesman for Bedford Borough Council said: “These sites will help to reduce the number of illegal encampments in the borough by providing permanent pitches for the foreseeable future. However, the local need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches will continue to be assessed and action taken where appropriate.” The council’s Gypsy and Traveller Sites Plan, introduced last year, will allocate land to meet the need for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation in the borough.
As part of this process a consultation is due to start this week to assess the methodology used to determine the local need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches in the borough.” At the next meeting of the planning committee tomorrow, applications for three sites at Rushden Road, Bletsoe, Bedford Road, Roxton and Dane Hill Farm in Stevington, are recommended for refusal on the grounds that there will be sufficient space available for caravans at Meadow Lane and Kempston Hardwick.
Cllr Wootton said: “The Travellers themselves have said they want to be near shops, schools and hospitals and these rural sites are not suitable for that as they are in the middle of the countryside.”
A councillor has warned that a contentious Travellers site could be full in just two years leaving the council to find more space to meet land requirements.
Cllr Tom Wootton claims that although planning permission has now been given for the Meadow Lane site in Bedford, Bedford Borough Council will be left looking for another large site in the next few years as the 15 pitches at Meadow Lane and three pitches at the Kempston Hardwick site will be full.
Cllr Wootton, who represents Wyboston ward, said: “Building Meadow Lane gets us out of jail for a couple of years but when it is full the council will have to start looking again.” A spokesman for Bedford Borough Council said: “These sites will help to reduce the number of illegal encampments in the borough by providing permanent pitches for the foreseeable future. However, the local need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches will continue to be assessed and action taken where appropriate.” The council’s Gypsy and Traveller Sites Plan, introduced last year, will allocate land to meet the need for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation in the borough.
As part of this process a consultation is due to start this week to assess the methodology used to determine the local need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches in the borough.” At the next meeting of the planning committee tomorrow, applications for three sites at Rushden Road, Bletsoe, Bedford Road, Roxton and Dane Hill Farm in Stevington, are recommended for refusal on the grounds that there will be sufficient space available for caravans at Meadow Lane and Kempston Hardwick.
Cllr Wootton said: “The Travellers themselves have said they want to be near shops, schools and hospitals and these rural sites are not suitable for that as they are in the middle of the countryside.”
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Police use Facebook to prevent Appleby Horse Fair tensions
From the Northern Echo
POLICE are using the social networking website Facebook to help keep people up to date about events associated with an annual gathering of Gypsies and Travellers.
The traditional migration of Gypsies and members of the travelling community to Appleby Horse Fair, in Cumbria, is under way, with Barnard Castle and the surrounding area a popular stopover point.
To help update people who live in the area and visitors, the Barnard Castle neighbourhood police team has set up a temporary Facebook page, called Teesdale to Appleby 2012, until June 12.
Officers will post regular updates and information, including unfolding events, the opening of the Broomielaw and Shaw Bank stopover sites, which took place yesterday, and other information about civil trespass encampments.
People can also use the page to post information or questions to the neighbourhood policing team.
Inspector Kevin Tuck said: “This journey has gone on since the 1600s and for most Travellers it is a long held traditional holiday to meet family and friends at Appleby.
“Some residents welcome the Travellers passing through the dale, but others have concerns about the potential for trespass and there can be feelings of unease about an influx of people passing through.
“We’re using Facebook this year to provide a better flow of information to help reduce any tensions which may arise.
“Our past experience has shown that compromise and problem-solving is the most effective way of managing this unfolding community event, for the benefit and safety of everyone involved.”
There are five temporary stopover areas in Teesdale, which are provided with water, portable toilets and rubbish collection, located in Wackerfield, Broomielaw, Shaw Bank, Winston crossroads and Guide Post corner, in Bowes.
Measures are in place to discourage trespass in Winston, Stainton Grove, Staindrop, Deerbolt Bank, Demesnes, Bridgegate, Flaxfield and Harmire Industrial Estate.
Appleby Fair, from June 7 to 13, is the biggest of its kind in the UK and attracts up to 30,000 visitors.
POLICE are using the social networking website Facebook to help keep people up to date about events associated with an annual gathering of Gypsies and Travellers.
The traditional migration of Gypsies and members of the travelling community to Appleby Horse Fair, in Cumbria, is under way, with Barnard Castle and the surrounding area a popular stopover point.
To help update people who live in the area and visitors, the Barnard Castle neighbourhood police team has set up a temporary Facebook page, called Teesdale to Appleby 2012, until June 12.
Officers will post regular updates and information, including unfolding events, the opening of the Broomielaw and Shaw Bank stopover sites, which took place yesterday, and other information about civil trespass encampments.
People can also use the page to post information or questions to the neighbourhood policing team.
Inspector Kevin Tuck said: “This journey has gone on since the 1600s and for most Travellers it is a long held traditional holiday to meet family and friends at Appleby.
“Some residents welcome the Travellers passing through the dale, but others have concerns about the potential for trespass and there can be feelings of unease about an influx of people passing through.
“We’re using Facebook this year to provide a better flow of information to help reduce any tensions which may arise.
“Our past experience has shown that compromise and problem-solving is the most effective way of managing this unfolding community event, for the benefit and safety of everyone involved.”
There are five temporary stopover areas in Teesdale, which are provided with water, portable toilets and rubbish collection, located in Wackerfield, Broomielaw, Shaw Bank, Winston crossroads and Guide Post corner, in Bowes.
Measures are in place to discourage trespass in Winston, Stainton Grove, Staindrop, Deerbolt Bank, Demesnes, Bridgegate, Flaxfield and Harmire Industrial Estate.
Appleby Fair, from June 7 to 13, is the biggest of its kind in the UK and attracts up to 30,000 visitors.
Travellers return to Coulsdon car park - Croydon
From the Coulsdon and Purley Advertiser
TRAVELLERS say they moved into a Coulsdon town centre site for the third time in six months because the council always takes "at least a week" to move them on.
Eight caravans turned up at the council-run Lion Green Road car park last week, with the council blaming keyholders for failing to secure the site properly.
But the Travellers say they use the site because they are guaranteed at least seven days of untroubled residence.
The caravans turned up early last week and left on Sunday, under orders from Croydon Council.
But before their departure, one of the Travellers – who declined to give her name – said: "We come here because we know we get a week and we do not have to go through the hassle of having to move every day.
"The council also asked us whether we knew how to access doctors and schooling for our kids.
"It would be nice to get them into schools but it is hard when we are moving around."
Vicky Newham, who lives in Lion Green Road opposite the car park, said the noise from the site was "a real pain".
She said: "The noise is from their generators going all night. And their dogs roam around and bark 24/7.
"I've complained about them being there loads of times, to the council and police.
"It really bugs me that they are allowed to stay there for free when people have to pay to park their cars there, and are given penalty notices if they overstay.
"Why are the same rules not applied to them?"
At present, there is only one legalised Traveller site in Croydon – at Latham's Way in Broad Green – and none in the south of the borough.
But Charles King, chairman of the East Coulsdon Residents' Association, feels having one would not help the situation and instead urged the council to get tougher. He said: "Just over the boundary in Woodmansterne there is a private site and a council one. That should be enough."
The Lion Green Road car park is run by the council, but certain keyholders are able to remove the height-restriction barriers.
The council says these barriers had been taken out but not put back, which allowed caravans to access the site.
On the period of time it takes to remove the Travellers, the spokesman said the council acts on a "case by case basis" and that a week's notice is not standard.
He added: "All factors are taken into consideration and appropriate notice agreed and given.
"If it seems a little more grace needs to be given we do that – we try to be firm but fair."
TRAVELLERS say they moved into a Coulsdon town centre site for the third time in six months because the council always takes "at least a week" to move them on.
Eight caravans turned up at the council-run Lion Green Road car park last week, with the council blaming keyholders for failing to secure the site properly.
But the Travellers say they use the site because they are guaranteed at least seven days of untroubled residence.
The caravans turned up early last week and left on Sunday, under orders from Croydon Council.
But before their departure, one of the Travellers – who declined to give her name – said: "We come here because we know we get a week and we do not have to go through the hassle of having to move every day.
"The council also asked us whether we knew how to access doctors and schooling for our kids.
"It would be nice to get them into schools but it is hard when we are moving around."
Vicky Newham, who lives in Lion Green Road opposite the car park, said the noise from the site was "a real pain".
She said: "The noise is from their generators going all night. And their dogs roam around and bark 24/7.
"I've complained about them being there loads of times, to the council and police.
"It really bugs me that they are allowed to stay there for free when people have to pay to park their cars there, and are given penalty notices if they overstay.
"Why are the same rules not applied to them?"
At present, there is only one legalised Traveller site in Croydon – at Latham's Way in Broad Green – and none in the south of the borough.
But Charles King, chairman of the East Coulsdon Residents' Association, feels having one would not help the situation and instead urged the council to get tougher. He said: "Just over the boundary in Woodmansterne there is a private site and a council one. That should be enough."
The Lion Green Road car park is run by the council, but certain keyholders are able to remove the height-restriction barriers.
The council says these barriers had been taken out but not put back, which allowed caravans to access the site.
On the period of time it takes to remove the Travellers, the spokesman said the council acts on a "case by case basis" and that a week's notice is not standard.
He added: "All factors are taken into consideration and appropriate notice agreed and given.
"If it seems a little more grace needs to be given we do that – we try to be firm but fair."
‘Feelings running high’ at prospect of 20-home Travellers’ site in village - Lincolnshire
From the Grantham Journal
MORE than 100 villagers attended a special meeting on Monday to voice their concerns about a planning application for a 20-home Travellers’ site.
If granted planning permission, the new site would be on land at Woolsthorpe Lane in Sedgebrook.
The application has been made by Mr T. Hone of Newark who is seeking to have 10 mobile home pitches, each able to accommodate two homes, as well as 10 WC blocks built on the site.
Chairman of Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir Parish Council, Coun Gilbert Ward, said there was a lot of opposition to the proposal at Monday’s meeting.
Coun Ward said: “The meeting was attended by 130 people and all of them were pretty much against this proposed site. Everyone was given the chance to say what they wanted and feelings were running pretty high.”
The parish council voted unanimously in favour of objecting to the proposals, citing concerns with the number of homes to be sited, the access road, the close proximity to Grantham Canal and disturbance to wildlife in the area.
Coun Ward said: “To say the least, it is not a suitable site at all.”
The design and access statemtent for the planning application on behalf of Mr Hone says enquiries into the availability of other land have been made without success.
It states: “Mr Hone and numerous Traveller families have enquired at a number of Traveller pitches within the local area and have all been told they are at full capacity.
“As no further land has been allocated for this use by the county council, this has left the Travellers homeless.”
MORE than 100 villagers attended a special meeting on Monday to voice their concerns about a planning application for a 20-home Travellers’ site.
If granted planning permission, the new site would be on land at Woolsthorpe Lane in Sedgebrook.
The application has been made by Mr T. Hone of Newark who is seeking to have 10 mobile home pitches, each able to accommodate two homes, as well as 10 WC blocks built on the site.
Chairman of Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir Parish Council, Coun Gilbert Ward, said there was a lot of opposition to the proposal at Monday’s meeting.
Coun Ward said: “The meeting was attended by 130 people and all of them were pretty much against this proposed site. Everyone was given the chance to say what they wanted and feelings were running pretty high.”
The parish council voted unanimously in favour of objecting to the proposals, citing concerns with the number of homes to be sited, the access road, the close proximity to Grantham Canal and disturbance to wildlife in the area.
Coun Ward said: “To say the least, it is not a suitable site at all.”
The design and access statemtent for the planning application on behalf of Mr Hone says enquiries into the availability of other land have been made without success.
It states: “Mr Hone and numerous Traveller families have enquired at a number of Traveller pitches within the local area and have all been told they are at full capacity.
“As no further land has been allocated for this use by the county council, this has left the Travellers homeless.”
Friday, 25 May 2012
Meriden Gypsies make two new appeals
From ITV News
A group of Gypsies living illegally on land in Meriden near Coventry have made two new appeals to stay on the site.
They'd previously signed an agreement with the Council to leave. Residents keeping a 24-hour vigil outside the site in protest say they now plan to lobby the government to prevent further appeals.
A group of Gypsies living illegally on land in Meriden near Coventry have made two new appeals to stay on the site.
They'd previously signed an agreement with the Council to leave. Residents keeping a 24-hour vigil outside the site in protest say they now plan to lobby the government to prevent further appeals.
Travellers set up camp next to Tytherington High School - Macclesfield
From the Macclesfield Express
A group of Travellers have set up camp on the field behind Tytherington High School.
Around 15 caravans began using the field between the school and the Middlewood Way yesterday. It is believed they are on their way to the Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria. A spokesperson for Tytherington High School confirmed the matter has been reported to the police.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, has also reported the matter to the council. He said: "I went for a jog in the morning and saw one or two camped up, and then I went again in the evening and there were 15 -20 there. I felt quite threatened. "They have smashed down a fence to get all the caravans on there and kids going to Tytherington are now having to walk through a Gypsy camp to get to school."
A group of Travellers have set up camp on the field behind Tytherington High School.
Around 15 caravans began using the field between the school and the Middlewood Way yesterday. It is believed they are on their way to the Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria. A spokesperson for Tytherington High School confirmed the matter has been reported to the police.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, has also reported the matter to the council. He said: "I went for a jog in the morning and saw one or two camped up, and then I went again in the evening and there were 15 -20 there. I felt quite threatened. "They have smashed down a fence to get all the caravans on there and kids going to Tytherington are now having to walk through a Gypsy camp to get to school."
Ewood Travellers’ park is ‘nightmare’ - Lancashire Telegraph
From the Lancashire
RESIDENTS near a park in Ewood have spoken of their nightmare after a group of travellers moved into the area.
Five caravans have been at the site, just off Warwick Road, for two weeks now, but despite requests from Blackburn with Darwen Council, have not yet moved on.
Residents, who can see the camp from their windows, have also complained about seeing Travellers urinating and defecating in the street and throwing rubbish on to the ground.
Maureen Bateson, councillor for the Ewood ward, said the situation was ‘unacceptable’ and that everything was being done to get the caravans to move on as quickly as possible.
She said: “The site was visited by enforcement officers and the Travellers were given notice to quit by midnight on Tuesday.
“They chose not to move and so the council is proceeding through the courts to go forward with an eviction notice.
“Unfortunately we are getting used to doing this, but hopefully they will be moved on as quickly as possible.”
Coun Bateson said around four or five Travellers’ camps had been set up in the ward over the past few months, and although they have been moved on each time, it was only a small distance.
It is expected that it will be at least another two weeks before the eviction notice can be issued.
Councillor Dave Harling, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “We understand the concerns that this situation is causing to local residents.
“The council, with police and other partners, is using all its powers to remove the Travellers from the site and papers are being prepared to get a court date as soon as possible.”
RESIDENTS near a park in Ewood have spoken of their nightmare after a group of travellers moved into the area.
Five caravans have been at the site, just off Warwick Road, for two weeks now, but despite requests from Blackburn with Darwen Council, have not yet moved on.
Residents, who can see the camp from their windows, have also complained about seeing Travellers urinating and defecating in the street and throwing rubbish on to the ground.
Maureen Bateson, councillor for the Ewood ward, said the situation was ‘unacceptable’ and that everything was being done to get the caravans to move on as quickly as possible.
She said: “The site was visited by enforcement officers and the Travellers were given notice to quit by midnight on Tuesday.
“They chose not to move and so the council is proceeding through the courts to go forward with an eviction notice.
“Unfortunately we are getting used to doing this, but hopefully they will be moved on as quickly as possible.”
Coun Bateson said around four or five Travellers’ camps had been set up in the ward over the past few months, and although they have been moved on each time, it was only a small distance.
It is expected that it will be at least another two weeks before the eviction notice can be issued.
Councillor Dave Harling, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “We understand the concerns that this situation is causing to local residents.
“The council, with police and other partners, is using all its powers to remove the Travellers from the site and papers are being prepared to get a court date as soon as possible.”
Council turns down Traveller site plans - Derbyshire
From the Derbyshire Times
PLANS for a Travellers site in Hady has been refused.
Chesterfield Borough Council rejected the scheme for a family Traveller site with associated facilities at Hady Lane.
Over 200 people attended a public meeting to speak out against the proposal for two pitches each containing mobile homes, touring caravans and amenity blocks plus an additional touring caravan.
One hundred and seventy nine people signed a petition against the site saying it would have a negative impact on the landscape.
Residents also raised fears about crime, anti-social behaviour and noise and litter.
Planners said the development would meet a need for ‘culturally specific local accommodation,’ and there was a lack of suitable alternative sites but raised fears about lack of sewage services.
Councillors backed officer’s recommendation and refused the application
PLANS for a Travellers site in Hady has been refused.
Chesterfield Borough Council rejected the scheme for a family Traveller site with associated facilities at Hady Lane.
Over 200 people attended a public meeting to speak out against the proposal for two pitches each containing mobile homes, touring caravans and amenity blocks plus an additional touring caravan.
One hundred and seventy nine people signed a petition against the site saying it would have a negative impact on the landscape.
Residents also raised fears about crime, anti-social behaviour and noise and litter.
Planners said the development would meet a need for ‘culturally specific local accommodation,’ and there was a lack of suitable alternative sites but raised fears about lack of sewage services.
Councillors backed officer’s recommendation and refused the application
Paddock Wood residents in council tax protest over Travellers - Kent
From Paddock Wood Courier
PEOPLE living on the outskirts of Paddock Wood are refusing to pay their council tax in a protest over illegal Travellers' sites.
At least 20 households have signed a declaration to withhold payments, amid growing anger over what they see as the "unregulated incursion" of Gypsies and Travellers.
Communities in Fowle Hall, Queen Street and Willow Lane have accused Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone borough councils of "negligence", claiming the area is becoming overrun by unauthorised camps.
One of the campaigners, Dr Chris Hinde, said: "A backlash is coming from normally law-abiding residents."
In a statement – titled Rural Community Fights Back Against Flouting Of Planning Regulations By Travellers – residents vowed to withhold council tax until "due attention" was given to the problem of travellers.
It states: "It is the view of the community that both sets of council officials and their elected representatives have been negligent in their duties and responsibilities."
Council tax for a band D property in Paddock Wood is currently £1,451 a year.
Not paying it can result in a prison sentence as well as a fine and order for back-payment.
The area affected straddles the border between Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone authorities. The protest follows moves by travellers to set up the latest in a series of unauthorised sites in and around Willow Lane.
A retrospective planning application for four mobile homes and four caravans at Lindfield Farm was submitted to Maidstone Borough Council earlier this month.
Dr Hinde warned it was the last straw for residents, whom he said were exasperated at a perceived lack of action to prevent more sites being built.
He said: "Why should we abide by planning regulations if the same rules are not applied uniformly? At the very least retrospective planning applications must be outlawed, and with immediate effect."
A decision last week by the Government to reject an appeal against a council enforcement notice which demanded the removal of all caravans, hardstanding and fences from a site called Green Acres, has been welcomed by residents as a step in the right direction.
The ruling means Travellers on the site must leave within a year.
But Dr Hinde claimed the problem was that travellers were still moving in before applying for planning permission.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council refused to comment. Maidstone Borough Council said the action it had taken over the Lindfield Farm site, including using legal powers, proved it had not been negligent.
see also: The Daily Telegraph - Residents living near illegal Gypsy camp refuse to pay council tax
PEOPLE living on the outskirts of Paddock Wood are refusing to pay their council tax in a protest over illegal Travellers' sites.
At least 20 households have signed a declaration to withhold payments, amid growing anger over what they see as the "unregulated incursion" of Gypsies and Travellers.
Communities in Fowle Hall, Queen Street and Willow Lane have accused Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone borough councils of "negligence", claiming the area is becoming overrun by unauthorised camps.
One of the campaigners, Dr Chris Hinde, said: "A backlash is coming from normally law-abiding residents."
In a statement – titled Rural Community Fights Back Against Flouting Of Planning Regulations By Travellers – residents vowed to withhold council tax until "due attention" was given to the problem of travellers.
It states: "It is the view of the community that both sets of council officials and their elected representatives have been negligent in their duties and responsibilities."
Council tax for a band D property in Paddock Wood is currently £1,451 a year.
Not paying it can result in a prison sentence as well as a fine and order for back-payment.
The area affected straddles the border between Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone authorities. The protest follows moves by travellers to set up the latest in a series of unauthorised sites in and around Willow Lane.
A retrospective planning application for four mobile homes and four caravans at Lindfield Farm was submitted to Maidstone Borough Council earlier this month.
Dr Hinde warned it was the last straw for residents, whom he said were exasperated at a perceived lack of action to prevent more sites being built.
He said: "Why should we abide by planning regulations if the same rules are not applied uniformly? At the very least retrospective planning applications must be outlawed, and with immediate effect."
A decision last week by the Government to reject an appeal against a council enforcement notice which demanded the removal of all caravans, hardstanding and fences from a site called Green Acres, has been welcomed by residents as a step in the right direction.
The ruling means Travellers on the site must leave within a year.
But Dr Hinde claimed the problem was that travellers were still moving in before applying for planning permission.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council refused to comment. Maidstone Borough Council said the action it had taken over the Lindfield Farm site, including using legal powers, proved it had not been negligent.
see also: The Daily Telegraph - Residents living near illegal Gypsy camp refuse to pay council tax
Eviction orders issued to Haskells Rec Travellers - Dorset
From the Dorset Echo
BOROUGH of Poole officers have served official orders on the illegal Traveller encampment at Parkstone’s Haskells recreation ground.
The summons ordering the 18 caravans and two tents removed will be served sometime today.
The Travellers, many of whom are believed to be the same group that set up camp at Beach Road car park, Branksome Chine, last month, began arriving at the recreation ground on Tuesday.
Council team manger Jeff Morley said: “Since their arrival we have been visiting the site every day to provide refuse sacks, assess the behaviour of the Travellers and reduce any impact on the local area.
“We are now using the legal process to ensure their eviction as soon as possible and we envisage this will happen in the middle of next week.”
A health visitor has visited the site to access the Travellers’ welfare and provide advice on health issues.
Residents have been warned against agreeing building work to doorstep traders, as it is believed many of the Travellers could be carrying out work in the local area.
BOROUGH of Poole officers have served official orders on the illegal Traveller encampment at Parkstone’s Haskells recreation ground.
The summons ordering the 18 caravans and two tents removed will be served sometime today.
The Travellers, many of whom are believed to be the same group that set up camp at Beach Road car park, Branksome Chine, last month, began arriving at the recreation ground on Tuesday.
Council team manger Jeff Morley said: “Since their arrival we have been visiting the site every day to provide refuse sacks, assess the behaviour of the Travellers and reduce any impact on the local area.
“We are now using the legal process to ensure their eviction as soon as possible and we envisage this will happen in the middle of next week.”
A health visitor has visited the site to access the Travellers’ welfare and provide advice on health issues.
Residents have been warned against agreeing building work to doorstep traders, as it is believed many of the Travellers could be carrying out work in the local area.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Green light for new halting site in Newbridge - Ireland
From the Leinster Leader
A new halting site for Newbridge was given the green light by Kildare County Council recently.
It proposes an expansion of the current one at Tankardsgarden to expand onto previously unused land.
The current halting site at Tankardsgarden has housed families for 22 years and is in desperate need of repair. It is to be completely demolished, re-built and extended.
The works, proposed under a Part 8 application, will involve the removal of boundary walls, halting site bays and all ancillary buildings.
The re-vamped site will include seven bays, a single-storey caretaker’s office, a single-storey community building, new entrance, new boundary walls and fences and a new road layout.
Three masts will be placed throughout the site to support CCTV security cameras.
Two years ago the council’s first proposal was to build two halting sites, a new one at Tankardsgarden and the other at Mooney’s Lane, which was to take six families from the 13 currently living in dire conditions in a six-bay site at Tankardsgarden.
However some residents and local councillors in the area objected that Mooney’s lane was unsuitable as it was prone to flooding, and lacked the adequate infrastructure.
The refurbished site will include a green amenity area and there is a designated location for a piece of art-work.
The inclusion of a new footpath outside the site, along the Barrettstown Road, is likely to be welcomed by local residents and Travellers alike, given that the issue of safety for pedestrians on this stretch of roadway has been raised in the past.
A new halting site for Newbridge was given the green light by Kildare County Council recently.
It proposes an expansion of the current one at Tankardsgarden to expand onto previously unused land.
The current halting site at Tankardsgarden has housed families for 22 years and is in desperate need of repair. It is to be completely demolished, re-built and extended.
The works, proposed under a Part 8 application, will involve the removal of boundary walls, halting site bays and all ancillary buildings.
The re-vamped site will include seven bays, a single-storey caretaker’s office, a single-storey community building, new entrance, new boundary walls and fences and a new road layout.
Three masts will be placed throughout the site to support CCTV security cameras.
Two years ago the council’s first proposal was to build two halting sites, a new one at Tankardsgarden and the other at Mooney’s Lane, which was to take six families from the 13 currently living in dire conditions in a six-bay site at Tankardsgarden.
However some residents and local councillors in the area objected that Mooney’s lane was unsuitable as it was prone to flooding, and lacked the adequate infrastructure.
The refurbished site will include a green amenity area and there is a designated location for a piece of art-work.
The inclusion of a new footpath outside the site, along the Barrettstown Road, is likely to be welcomed by local residents and Travellers alike, given that the issue of safety for pedestrians on this stretch of roadway has been raised in the past.
New rules set to end build up of Travellers - Cumbria
From the Teeside Mercury
MEMBERS of a dale forum are hoping that new arrangements in Cumbria will help prevent a repeat of last year’s build up of Traveller caravans in the Bowes area.
Since the 1600s Teesdale has served as a temporary home to the hundreds of Travellers who make their way to the historic Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria every year.
In recent years, authorities across the county border have introduced stopping restrictions in the lead up to the event. And this has seen an increase in Travellers staying in the dale as they wait for the fair and associated campsites to open.
About 200 Traveller caravans arrived in Bowes last year, causing concern and road safety fears among residents and police.
But now Cumbrian authorities have agreed that this year they will open a field early at Appleby for bow top caravans.
Sgt Chris Knox of Barnard Castle Police, said: “They are working with us to try and minimise the impact on us. We will be in daily contact to resolve any issues that arise.” He added that Travellers are now using social media to find out where spaces are available, which is also helping prevent overcrowding on sites.
This year’s Appleby Fair runs from June 7 to June 13.
The Teesdale Residents and Travellers Forum and the dale’s police officers are working to ensure the annual passage of travellers through Teesdale is as peaceful as possible.
Police have written to residents living next to the Demesnes in Barnard Castle urging them to make sure barriers to the site remain locked during this time.
Fields at the beauty spot are usually occupied by the town’s Meet during this period but the Meet will be held at Scar Top and the castle grounds this year.
“There is a concern that if the barriers are not locked, there may be a breach,” said Sgt Knox. “It is in the interests of residents to make sure the retractable bollard is locked and secure at all times.”
Officers have again organised a legal order to prevent parking on the road or pavement at Bridgegate in Barnard Castle – a previous flashpoint of Traveller trouble.
And a new order, known as a section 14, will be in place on Bowes Road at Startforth. Both orders will be in effect from May 28 to June 18, and letters with details have been sent to residents.
As usual, official sites with water and toilet facilities will be set aside for travellers to use. The sites at Shaw Bank, Barnard Castle, and at Broomielaw will be open from May 25 to June 22.
Travellers will also be encouraged to stay at designated ‘temporary areas of acceptance’ at Bowes, Wakefield and Winston.
Cllr Tony Cooke, chairman of the forum said: “The Teesdale Residents and Travellers Forum is committed to minimising the impact the migration has on the settled community and ensuring the safety of Travellers as they pass through the area.”
Sgt Knox said “all reasonable steps” have been taken to ensure the period passes as safely and peacefully as possible.
MEMBERS of a dale forum are hoping that new arrangements in Cumbria will help prevent a repeat of last year’s build up of Traveller caravans in the Bowes area.
Since the 1600s Teesdale has served as a temporary home to the hundreds of Travellers who make their way to the historic Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria every year.
In recent years, authorities across the county border have introduced stopping restrictions in the lead up to the event. And this has seen an increase in Travellers staying in the dale as they wait for the fair and associated campsites to open.
About 200 Traveller caravans arrived in Bowes last year, causing concern and road safety fears among residents and police.
But now Cumbrian authorities have agreed that this year they will open a field early at Appleby for bow top caravans.
Sgt Chris Knox of Barnard Castle Police, said: “They are working with us to try and minimise the impact on us. We will be in daily contact to resolve any issues that arise.” He added that Travellers are now using social media to find out where spaces are available, which is also helping prevent overcrowding on sites.
This year’s Appleby Fair runs from June 7 to June 13.
The Teesdale Residents and Travellers Forum and the dale’s police officers are working to ensure the annual passage of travellers through Teesdale is as peaceful as possible.
Police have written to residents living next to the Demesnes in Barnard Castle urging them to make sure barriers to the site remain locked during this time.
Fields at the beauty spot are usually occupied by the town’s Meet during this period but the Meet will be held at Scar Top and the castle grounds this year.
“There is a concern that if the barriers are not locked, there may be a breach,” said Sgt Knox. “It is in the interests of residents to make sure the retractable bollard is locked and secure at all times.”
Officers have again organised a legal order to prevent parking on the road or pavement at Bridgegate in Barnard Castle – a previous flashpoint of Traveller trouble.
And a new order, known as a section 14, will be in place on Bowes Road at Startforth. Both orders will be in effect from May 28 to June 18, and letters with details have been sent to residents.
As usual, official sites with water and toilet facilities will be set aside for travellers to use. The sites at Shaw Bank, Barnard Castle, and at Broomielaw will be open from May 25 to June 22.
Travellers will also be encouraged to stay at designated ‘temporary areas of acceptance’ at Bowes, Wakefield and Winston.
Cllr Tony Cooke, chairman of the forum said: “The Teesdale Residents and Travellers Forum is committed to minimising the impact the migration has on the settled community and ensuring the safety of Travellers as they pass through the area.”
Sgt Knox said “all reasonable steps” have been taken to ensure the period passes as safely and peacefully as possible.
Store bars Travellers from the premises - Essex
From the Daily Gazette
TRAVELLERS have been banned from shopping in the supermarket where they have illegally made camp.
The three caravans pitched up at Sainsbury’s Tollgate store, in Stanway, after being moved by bailiffs from private land in Severalls Lane, Colchester, at the weekend.
One of the Travellers, Henry Loveridge, 48, said some of them had been ordered out of the supermarket by security staff when they went in to buy a can of soft drink.
He added: “We spoke to the man in charge and he said, ‘we don’t want you in the shop no more’.
“We are not allowed to use the shop because we are on their land.”
Mr Loveridge also claimed staff has used offensive language when they told the travellers to leave the shop – something the company has strongly denied.
He said Sainsbury’s staff told them the Traveller families were banned because of an incident the previous day.
Mr Loveridge, who has a permanent pitch in Surrey, added: “We did not cause any incidents.
“I told him it was racist and prejudiced against Travellers.
“I was surprised. They’re not allowed to do that. They wouldn’t be allowed to ban black people or foreigners. We can go and spend our money anywhere. It’s just as good as anyone else’s.”
After being ordered out, the Travellers called the police to complain about their treatment – but were told officers could do nothing, since the store was private property.
Mr Loveridge claimed the store manager had warned them not to enter the store when they tried to come in, but the families ignored the request as they wanted to buy food and clothes.
He added: “I have never had this before. I won’t spend any money in there now.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesman strongly denied any of its staff had insulted or racially abused any of the Travellers.
A spokesman said: “After receiving complaints about noise from our neighbours and a local councillor, we asked the Travellers to leave our car park.
“Our bailiffs have now served notice and they are due to leave on Wednesday. As they have not vacated the car park, they are not welcome to shop in the store.
“They have been informed of this and have been asked to leave the store.”
TRAVELLERS have been banned from shopping in the supermarket where they have illegally made camp.
The three caravans pitched up at Sainsbury’s Tollgate store, in Stanway, after being moved by bailiffs from private land in Severalls Lane, Colchester, at the weekend.
One of the Travellers, Henry Loveridge, 48, said some of them had been ordered out of the supermarket by security staff when they went in to buy a can of soft drink.
He added: “We spoke to the man in charge and he said, ‘we don’t want you in the shop no more’.
“We are not allowed to use the shop because we are on their land.”
Mr Loveridge also claimed staff has used offensive language when they told the travellers to leave the shop – something the company has strongly denied.
He said Sainsbury’s staff told them the Traveller families were banned because of an incident the previous day.
Mr Loveridge, who has a permanent pitch in Surrey, added: “We did not cause any incidents.
“I told him it was racist and prejudiced against Travellers.
“I was surprised. They’re not allowed to do that. They wouldn’t be allowed to ban black people or foreigners. We can go and spend our money anywhere. It’s just as good as anyone else’s.”
After being ordered out, the Travellers called the police to complain about their treatment – but were told officers could do nothing, since the store was private property.
Mr Loveridge claimed the store manager had warned them not to enter the store when they tried to come in, but the families ignored the request as they wanted to buy food and clothes.
He added: “I have never had this before. I won’t spend any money in there now.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesman strongly denied any of its staff had insulted or racially abused any of the Travellers.
A spokesman said: “After receiving complaints about noise from our neighbours and a local councillor, we asked the Travellers to leave our car park.
“Our bailiffs have now served notice and they are due to leave on Wednesday. As they have not vacated the car park, they are not welcome to shop in the store.
“They have been informed of this and have been asked to leave the store.”
Travellers on old Beccles tip given order to leave tomorrow - Suffolk
From EDP24
A group of Travellers who were temporarily allowed to stay on a former tip have been given a court order that demands they move tomorrow.
The Travellers set up camp on the old Beccles household waste recycling site, off the A146, in the middle of January but are still there, despite initially agreeing to leave by Friday, April 27 in “tolerance meetings” with district councillors, the police, Norfolk and Suffolk county councils, and the town council.
Suffolk county councillor Chris Punt said the council had now turned to legal proceedings after being disappointed the Travellers did not leave on the agreed date.
The council did try to evict the Travellers under section 77 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, but after that was challenged, they have issued another one.
Mr Punt said: “There were issued a section 77 at 6.10pm on Wednesday night and have got until tomorrow to go, and if they don’t there will be a court hearing next week.”
He added: “If we get to court next week it will be a criminal offence and then police will be used to get them off.”
The household waste recycling site was initially earmarked for closure on May 9 last year as part of Suffolk County Council’s cost-cutting measures.
However, after Waveney District Council stepped forward to help, it remained open until the end of October when a new centre, run by B & B Skip Hire, was opened in Beccles Business Park, in Ellough.
Suffolk County Council is currently in the process of transferring the original site to Beccles Town Council, who intends to use it as additional car parking for the nearby Marsh Trail that is used by both walkers and cyclists.
A group of Travellers who were temporarily allowed to stay on a former tip have been given a court order that demands they move tomorrow.
The Travellers set up camp on the old Beccles household waste recycling site, off the A146, in the middle of January but are still there, despite initially agreeing to leave by Friday, April 27 in “tolerance meetings” with district councillors, the police, Norfolk and Suffolk county councils, and the town council.
Suffolk county councillor Chris Punt said the council had now turned to legal proceedings after being disappointed the Travellers did not leave on the agreed date.
The council did try to evict the Travellers under section 77 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, but after that was challenged, they have issued another one.
Mr Punt said: “There were issued a section 77 at 6.10pm on Wednesday night and have got until tomorrow to go, and if they don’t there will be a court hearing next week.”
He added: “If we get to court next week it will be a criminal offence and then police will be used to get them off.”
The household waste recycling site was initially earmarked for closure on May 9 last year as part of Suffolk County Council’s cost-cutting measures.
However, after Waveney District Council stepped forward to help, it remained open until the end of October when a new centre, run by B & B Skip Hire, was opened in Beccles Business Park, in Ellough.
Suffolk County Council is currently in the process of transferring the original site to Beccles Town Council, who intends to use it as additional car parking for the nearby Marsh Trail that is used by both walkers and cyclists.
Travellers set up camp on Paignton Green - Devon
From This Is South Devon
TORBAY councillors were called to an emergency meeting today after Travellers set up camp on Paignton Green.
The Travellers with vehicles and caravans turned up on the Green overnight, in a space on the North Green near the public toilets.
Councillors were being asked to attend a meeting at torquay Town Hall to discuss a response.
Labour councillor Darren Cowell wrote on Twitter: "#Torbay must resolve problem of travellers at sites across the Bay. Now on #Paignton Green! A permanent site had to be found. But where?"
TorbayLibDems added: "@Torbay_Council conducting Health & Welfare checks. Eviction action will take a week, or maybe two...
"Travellers appear to have gained access onto Paignton Green North, where the Radio 1 Roadshow were leaving.
"Councillors were advised that developing a permanent Travellers site would not give @Torbay_Council any legal advantage."
TORBAY councillors were called to an emergency meeting today after Travellers set up camp on Paignton Green.
The Travellers with vehicles and caravans turned up on the Green overnight, in a space on the North Green near the public toilets.
Councillors were being asked to attend a meeting at torquay Town Hall to discuss a response.
Labour councillor Darren Cowell wrote on Twitter: "#Torbay must resolve problem of travellers at sites across the Bay. Now on #Paignton Green! A permanent site had to be found. But where?"
TorbayLibDems added: "@Torbay_Council conducting Health & Welfare checks. Eviction action will take a week, or maybe two...
"Travellers appear to have gained access onto Paignton Green North, where the Radio 1 Roadshow were leaving.
"Councillors were advised that developing a permanent Travellers site would not give @Torbay_Council any legal advantage."
Travellers move onto Haskells Rec in Newtown - Dorset
From the Dorset Echo
RESIDENTS have been warned not to give building work to doorstep traders after Travellers set up camp on a recreation ground.
Many of the Travellers at Haskells Rec in Newtown are believed to be the same group who were at the Beach Road car park in Branksome Chine last month.
When they moved on from Branksome Chine, they landed Poole council with a bill for clearing up the large amount of rubble left behind.
The Travellers began arriving at the recreation ground on Tuesday, with Poole council counting 18 caravans and two tents.
The council has secured a court hearing on Monday, May 28, but is concerned the Travellers will be less likely to leave if people give them building work to do.
Jeff Morley, team manager at the Borough of Poole, said: “We would advise residents not to agree to anyone calling at your door offering building or driveway replacement without obtaining at least two written quotations from a member of an approved trader scheme, specifying work to be undertaken and a notice to a ‘cooling off period’ should you change your mind.”
He said officials were regularly visiting the site to provide refuse sacks, assess the behaviour of Travellers and reduce the impact on the area.
Some parents told the Daily Echo they were concerned about their children using the rec’s playground while the Travellers were there. But several neighbours said they did not have a problem with their presence.
Helen Hughes, of nearby Haskells Road, said yesterday: “They had lots of kids in the play area and were letting their dogs run in there, but at 9pm all the kids were gone from the playground and it was very quiet. There was no aggro.
“The police were good. They put letters around to everybody saying that if they were bothered by any bad behaviour to contact them, otherwise contact the Borough of Poole.”
Near neighbour George Lake said: “There’s been no trouble.
“We’ve been here 55 years and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen them on there.”
Another Haskells Road resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I was a little bit concerned because there are so many of them but by 9pm or 9.15pm last night they had all settled down. You could hear their generators going but that was it.
“Some people have said ‘I’m not going to let my kids play there while they’re here’, but there’s been no problem.
“They have to go somewhere.”
RESIDENTS have been warned not to give building work to doorstep traders after Travellers set up camp on a recreation ground.
Many of the Travellers at Haskells Rec in Newtown are believed to be the same group who were at the Beach Road car park in Branksome Chine last month.
When they moved on from Branksome Chine, they landed Poole council with a bill for clearing up the large amount of rubble left behind.
The Travellers began arriving at the recreation ground on Tuesday, with Poole council counting 18 caravans and two tents.
The council has secured a court hearing on Monday, May 28, but is concerned the Travellers will be less likely to leave if people give them building work to do.
Jeff Morley, team manager at the Borough of Poole, said: “We would advise residents not to agree to anyone calling at your door offering building or driveway replacement without obtaining at least two written quotations from a member of an approved trader scheme, specifying work to be undertaken and a notice to a ‘cooling off period’ should you change your mind.”
He said officials were regularly visiting the site to provide refuse sacks, assess the behaviour of Travellers and reduce the impact on the area.
Some parents told the Daily Echo they were concerned about their children using the rec’s playground while the Travellers were there. But several neighbours said they did not have a problem with their presence.
Helen Hughes, of nearby Haskells Road, said yesterday: “They had lots of kids in the play area and were letting their dogs run in there, but at 9pm all the kids were gone from the playground and it was very quiet. There was no aggro.
“The police were good. They put letters around to everybody saying that if they were bothered by any bad behaviour to contact them, otherwise contact the Borough of Poole.”
Near neighbour George Lake said: “There’s been no trouble.
“We’ve been here 55 years and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen them on there.”
Another Haskells Road resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I was a little bit concerned because there are so many of them but by 9pm or 9.15pm last night they had all settled down. You could hear their generators going but that was it.
“Some people have said ‘I’m not going to let my kids play there while they’re here’, but there’s been no problem.
“They have to go somewhere.”
Residents left to clear mess left by Churston and Broadsands Travellers - Devon
From the Herald Express
FURIOUS Torbay residents have been left to pick up the pieces after a visit by Travellers.
A convoy of caravans and cars has now left Churston Common and the public car park at Broadsands.
But they have left piles of rubbish and dozens of seething residents have vowed not to let the situation happen again.
A call for action is being led by farmer Richard Haddock (pictured).
Tensions between residents and Travellers threatened to get out of control with rumours of dog attacks and assaults.
But police said there were no substantial reports of anti-social behaviour or attacks on animals.
Other residents have complained about damage to the car park and the fact rate payers will pick up the cleaning bill.
A public meeting will now be held to discuss what measures can be taken to stop problems being repeated with a suggestion that a local farmer might be prepared to offer the Travellers land on which to settle for short periods.
Mr Haddock says he has spoken to 'a farmer in Torbay' who is prepared to offer a site, providing he is supported by the council.
Meanwhile, Mr Haddock has used his tractors and lorries to place large boulders around the common to stop another visit.
He said: "The council officers themselves have done everything they can but the councillors have to take responsibility.
"They were elected to do a job but they are not doing it.
"A lot of people are pretty upset."
He said most councillors were just hoping the problem would go away quickly and grateful that Travellers do not turn up in their wards.
But he also criticised people who employed travellers to clear gardens.
He claimed rubbish from paid clearances has been dumped on the common.
He said: "It is the residents in the area who give them work and pay them in money that gives them the biggest incentive to keep coming."
A Torbay Council spokesman said court proceedings to get the travellers evicted had been put in process before they moved on.
He added: "The people who occupied the site at Broadsands have now moved on and the site is being cleaned.
"We are not aware of any incident involving dogs at Broadsands.
"However, we have received a report of an incident on Churston Common, but we do not have the full details. We have not received a complaint in respect of this incident, but if we receive one we will investigate it."
A meeting of the community partnership will take place on Wednesday, May 30, at Churston Ferrers School starting at 6.30pm.
FURIOUS Torbay residents have been left to pick up the pieces after a visit by Travellers.
A convoy of caravans and cars has now left Churston Common and the public car park at Broadsands.
But they have left piles of rubbish and dozens of seething residents have vowed not to let the situation happen again.
A call for action is being led by farmer Richard Haddock (pictured).
Tensions between residents and Travellers threatened to get out of control with rumours of dog attacks and assaults.
But police said there were no substantial reports of anti-social behaviour or attacks on animals.
Other residents have complained about damage to the car park and the fact rate payers will pick up the cleaning bill.
A public meeting will now be held to discuss what measures can be taken to stop problems being repeated with a suggestion that a local farmer might be prepared to offer the Travellers land on which to settle for short periods.
Mr Haddock says he has spoken to 'a farmer in Torbay' who is prepared to offer a site, providing he is supported by the council.
Meanwhile, Mr Haddock has used his tractors and lorries to place large boulders around the common to stop another visit.
He said: "The council officers themselves have done everything they can but the councillors have to take responsibility.
"They were elected to do a job but they are not doing it.
"A lot of people are pretty upset."
He said most councillors were just hoping the problem would go away quickly and grateful that Travellers do not turn up in their wards.
But he also criticised people who employed travellers to clear gardens.
He claimed rubbish from paid clearances has been dumped on the common.
He said: "It is the residents in the area who give them work and pay them in money that gives them the biggest incentive to keep coming."
A Torbay Council spokesman said court proceedings to get the travellers evicted had been put in process before they moved on.
He added: "The people who occupied the site at Broadsands have now moved on and the site is being cleaned.
"We are not aware of any incident involving dogs at Broadsands.
"However, we have received a report of an incident on Churston Common, but we do not have the full details. We have not received a complaint in respect of this incident, but if we receive one we will investigate it."
A meeting of the community partnership will take place on Wednesday, May 30, at Churston Ferrers School starting at 6.30pm.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
"Cultural" crime and the blinding dust of prejudice
From the Travellers' Times
The CPS says forced marriage "disproportionately affects" Travellers. So why don't they refer to paedophilia as a "White British" crime? Damian Le Bas considers the contradictions in the criminal justice system.
“Keep your eyes and your ears open and your mouth shut.” That's what my granny used to tell me: a Gypsy knows how to use their eyes and ears.
If our ancestors hadn't had eyes in the back of their heads then none of us would be here today. From the mountains of Romania where noblemen enslaved Romanies and cut their tongues out for speaking their language, to the ovens of Auschwitz where babies were incinerated for being born Romany, we've had to have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a shushi to survive.
But there's something in the air right now, and it's blinding people to the truth about Gypsies and Travellers. It's stopping them hearing the quiet voice of the truth, and making their ears deaf to everything but the brainless voice of scapegoating.
What is this magical substance that for hundreds of years has been able to take the dying embers of hatred and fan them into an inferno of suspicion and prejudice? This mythical powder in a box marked “DANGER: GYPSIES” that can take any sensible, decent person and turn them into a standpipe of bigotry, willing to tar everyone with the same brush?
It can't be the dust that hangs in the air over the ruin of Dale Farm, laced with asbestos and a danger to those who still live there. No: that dust is real, and it was made by smashing through Travellers' homes and into contaminated ground. Because it's real, the world is happy to ignore it.
The magic powder that takes respectable people and turns them into anti-Gypsy weapons is something altogether different. It is the knowledge that whether or not there's any truth to what they say, everyone will believe them anyway, because the Gypsies always dunnit. There's no smoke without fire, right? And there's no fire in the woods unless the Gypsies are sitting round it, eating your stolen children and worshipping the devil.
Nazir Afzal is “Britain's most senior Asian prosecutor,” writes Jonathan Brown in The Independent. His fame has grown in recent weeks following the breakthrough convictions of nine men for grooming teenage girls for sex and, in a highly organised and abhorrent practie, passing them around to be raped by other men. Two more men were arrested on the weekend.
These convictions are a crucial milestone in the battle against sexual assault and exploitation, and Mr Afzal deserves the highest praise for his role in this process.
Mr Afzal has now been reported as saying that "There are some communities where we [the Crown Prosecution Service] have feared to tread ... The last bastion for me is the Traveller community." But what crimes is he speaking about here?
Afzal is talking about the practice of forced marriage and, by extension the issue of honour-based violence, which are targeted together by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Clearly both issues are and must be priority targets for the criminal justice system, as these practices are a blight on the conscience of a world that should shun all forms of domestic violence and enemies of women's rights. So what exactly is my problem with Mr Afzal?
Here's an extract from the CPS website's section dealing with honour-based violence: “It is currently understood that within a UK context honour-based violence and forced marriage disproportionately affect Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee women and young people. This includes, but is not limited to, Latin American, Traveller, African, South Asian, South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern, Turkish, Kurdish and Caribbean communities.”
Well, if Travellers have a special problem in this respect, it's good to know we're not the only ones to blame, since cultures from every continent on earth (with the exception of Australasia) are implicated in these vile practices by the CPS. Clearly domestic violence isn't a problem in white communities, unless you're a Traveller.
Afzal is less clear on exactly what he means by “Travellers”. In the UK, the rules of common parlance would suggest he means Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, but we can't be sure he's speaking with due reference to judicial precedent, which has afforded both groups ethnic minority status.
Perhaps Afzal means New Travellers, but that reference would be difficult to justify due to the open nature of the New Traveller community, where people from many different ethnic backgrounds find they're welcome. Or perhaps, at a stretch, he means Romani people from Eastern Europe: the most confusing possibility yet, since most Roma from the East haven't been “Travellers” since the 17th Century.
The entire CPS line of identifying 'cultural' or 'ethnic' crime, rather than simply crime, sets a dangerous precedent, and one that Afzal himself is certainly not happy to follow when it comes to other 'cultures'. When it comes to predatory paedophilia, he changes his tune, and it's alarming to see one of the country's top prosecutors display such a total lack of consistency when dealing with different ethnicities.
Here's what Afzal said to Jonathan Brown: “The vast majority of paedophiles and child abusers in this country are white British – 95 per cent. The one thing these men have in common with the vast majority, with virtually all paedophiles, is that they are men. We have got to focus on what the real issue is.”
So what is the “real issue” then, Mr Afzal?
“This is a gender issue. It is about men and their attitudes to women: men thinking they can control women in any way they want. Men determining what is feminine, what is womanly ... that somehow they can be manipulated and controlled.”
Hey presto: sexual crime committed by white British people is a gender issue, but in other communities it's a cultural issue. In the same vein, presumably a white Englishman who steals a car is stealing it because he's a car thief, irrespective of his background; but a Gypsy who steals a car is stealing it because he's a thieving Gypsy car thief with a cultural desire to steal.
Nobody is complaining of a double standard here: I am quoting a senior prosecutor who personifies the double standard-making typical of the UK justice system; who, when deciding whether or when to link ethnicity to crime, is at least as confused as Scooby Doo. I agree with Afzal 100% on the issue of men manipulating, controlling and abusing women. So why is he unable to extend his logic of gender issues across all ethnic groups? We do not need senior legal personalities who operate according to the half-baked anthropological principles of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.
Romany people have been convicted en masse of 'cultural' crimes before, and in the past the result has been genocide. I make no apologies for mentioning it. I have met the children and grandchildren of integrated, honest people who were gassed, shot and incinerated by the Nazis and their collaborators because their race was deemed “asocial”, “work-shy” and a “menace”. What the Nazis refused to see is that crimes are not committed by ethnicities, but by individuals, and no amount of propaganda or ethnic cleansing is able to change that fact.
Everyone is perfectly able to see this truth when it comes to the majority culture, which in the UK is not seen as some sort of 'cultural' breeding ground for paedophiles. But turn the tables to minority ethnic groups and the rules of the game are changed without explanation. Nazir Afzal may not be able to see this, but the Gypsies can. As a Romany colleague of mine, who champions equal rights for all ethnic minorities, said to me this morning, “Who wants a Gorjia education when they can't even see racism if it smacks them in the face? I'd rather have a Gypsy education, because at least we can see prejudice when it's right there in front of us.”
All over Europe, from Turin to Turkey, Romany people are being burned from their homes, murdered by right wing vigilantes, and chased from their villages by neo-Nazi activists. This is not some faraway problem of the wild and lawless Balkan mountains: Roma were violently chased from their homes in Belfast in June 2009. The European Union and United Nations have just reported that Romany people in Western Europe may face the same inequalities as our counterparts in the East, where the situation is worse than desperate.
Victimised because of their ethnicity by those who operate outside the law, Gypsies and Travellers are now being accused of an ethnic predisposition to crime by those who represent the law. The dust of fear is rising all around us, and we need to keep it out of our ears and eyes; as for those who care more about their prejudices than they do about the truth, perhaps they just don't want to.
The CPS says forced marriage "disproportionately affects" Travellers. So why don't they refer to paedophilia as a "White British" crime? Damian Le Bas considers the contradictions in the criminal justice system.
“Keep your eyes and your ears open and your mouth shut.” That's what my granny used to tell me: a Gypsy knows how to use their eyes and ears.
If our ancestors hadn't had eyes in the back of their heads then none of us would be here today. From the mountains of Romania where noblemen enslaved Romanies and cut their tongues out for speaking their language, to the ovens of Auschwitz where babies were incinerated for being born Romany, we've had to have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a shushi to survive.
But there's something in the air right now, and it's blinding people to the truth about Gypsies and Travellers. It's stopping them hearing the quiet voice of the truth, and making their ears deaf to everything but the brainless voice of scapegoating.
What is this magical substance that for hundreds of years has been able to take the dying embers of hatred and fan them into an inferno of suspicion and prejudice? This mythical powder in a box marked “DANGER: GYPSIES” that can take any sensible, decent person and turn them into a standpipe of bigotry, willing to tar everyone with the same brush?
It can't be the dust that hangs in the air over the ruin of Dale Farm, laced with asbestos and a danger to those who still live there. No: that dust is real, and it was made by smashing through Travellers' homes and into contaminated ground. Because it's real, the world is happy to ignore it.
The magic powder that takes respectable people and turns them into anti-Gypsy weapons is something altogether different. It is the knowledge that whether or not there's any truth to what they say, everyone will believe them anyway, because the Gypsies always dunnit. There's no smoke without fire, right? And there's no fire in the woods unless the Gypsies are sitting round it, eating your stolen children and worshipping the devil.
Nazir Afzal is “Britain's most senior Asian prosecutor,” writes Jonathan Brown in The Independent. His fame has grown in recent weeks following the breakthrough convictions of nine men for grooming teenage girls for sex and, in a highly organised and abhorrent practie, passing them around to be raped by other men. Two more men were arrested on the weekend.
These convictions are a crucial milestone in the battle against sexual assault and exploitation, and Mr Afzal deserves the highest praise for his role in this process.
Mr Afzal has now been reported as saying that "There are some communities where we [the Crown Prosecution Service] have feared to tread ... The last bastion for me is the Traveller community." But what crimes is he speaking about here?
Afzal is talking about the practice of forced marriage and, by extension the issue of honour-based violence, which are targeted together by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Clearly both issues are and must be priority targets for the criminal justice system, as these practices are a blight on the conscience of a world that should shun all forms of domestic violence and enemies of women's rights. So what exactly is my problem with Mr Afzal?
Here's an extract from the CPS website's section dealing with honour-based violence: “It is currently understood that within a UK context honour-based violence and forced marriage disproportionately affect Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee women and young people. This includes, but is not limited to, Latin American, Traveller, African, South Asian, South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern, Turkish, Kurdish and Caribbean communities.”
Well, if Travellers have a special problem in this respect, it's good to know we're not the only ones to blame, since cultures from every continent on earth (with the exception of Australasia) are implicated in these vile practices by the CPS. Clearly domestic violence isn't a problem in white communities, unless you're a Traveller.
Afzal is less clear on exactly what he means by “Travellers”. In the UK, the rules of common parlance would suggest he means Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, but we can't be sure he's speaking with due reference to judicial precedent, which has afforded both groups ethnic minority status.
Perhaps Afzal means New Travellers, but that reference would be difficult to justify due to the open nature of the New Traveller community, where people from many different ethnic backgrounds find they're welcome. Or perhaps, at a stretch, he means Romani people from Eastern Europe: the most confusing possibility yet, since most Roma from the East haven't been “Travellers” since the 17th Century.
The entire CPS line of identifying 'cultural' or 'ethnic' crime, rather than simply crime, sets a dangerous precedent, and one that Afzal himself is certainly not happy to follow when it comes to other 'cultures'. When it comes to predatory paedophilia, he changes his tune, and it's alarming to see one of the country's top prosecutors display such a total lack of consistency when dealing with different ethnicities.
Here's what Afzal said to Jonathan Brown: “The vast majority of paedophiles and child abusers in this country are white British – 95 per cent. The one thing these men have in common with the vast majority, with virtually all paedophiles, is that they are men. We have got to focus on what the real issue is.”
So what is the “real issue” then, Mr Afzal?
“This is a gender issue. It is about men and their attitudes to women: men thinking they can control women in any way they want. Men determining what is feminine, what is womanly ... that somehow they can be manipulated and controlled.”
Hey presto: sexual crime committed by white British people is a gender issue, but in other communities it's a cultural issue. In the same vein, presumably a white Englishman who steals a car is stealing it because he's a car thief, irrespective of his background; but a Gypsy who steals a car is stealing it because he's a thieving Gypsy car thief with a cultural desire to steal.
Nobody is complaining of a double standard here: I am quoting a senior prosecutor who personifies the double standard-making typical of the UK justice system; who, when deciding whether or when to link ethnicity to crime, is at least as confused as Scooby Doo. I agree with Afzal 100% on the issue of men manipulating, controlling and abusing women. So why is he unable to extend his logic of gender issues across all ethnic groups? We do not need senior legal personalities who operate according to the half-baked anthropological principles of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.
Romany people have been convicted en masse of 'cultural' crimes before, and in the past the result has been genocide. I make no apologies for mentioning it. I have met the children and grandchildren of integrated, honest people who were gassed, shot and incinerated by the Nazis and their collaborators because their race was deemed “asocial”, “work-shy” and a “menace”. What the Nazis refused to see is that crimes are not committed by ethnicities, but by individuals, and no amount of propaganda or ethnic cleansing is able to change that fact.
Everyone is perfectly able to see this truth when it comes to the majority culture, which in the UK is not seen as some sort of 'cultural' breeding ground for paedophiles. But turn the tables to minority ethnic groups and the rules of the game are changed without explanation. Nazir Afzal may not be able to see this, but the Gypsies can. As a Romany colleague of mine, who champions equal rights for all ethnic minorities, said to me this morning, “Who wants a Gorjia education when they can't even see racism if it smacks them in the face? I'd rather have a Gypsy education, because at least we can see prejudice when it's right there in front of us.”
All over Europe, from Turin to Turkey, Romany people are being burned from their homes, murdered by right wing vigilantes, and chased from their villages by neo-Nazi activists. This is not some faraway problem of the wild and lawless Balkan mountains: Roma were violently chased from their homes in Belfast in June 2009. The European Union and United Nations have just reported that Romany people in Western Europe may face the same inequalities as our counterparts in the East, where the situation is worse than desperate.
Victimised because of their ethnicity by those who operate outside the law, Gypsies and Travellers are now being accused of an ethnic predisposition to crime by those who represent the law. The dust of fear is rising all around us, and we need to keep it out of our ears and eyes; as for those who care more about their prejudices than they do about the truth, perhaps they just don't want to.
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