Evicted Travellers take refuge in Rossett church car park - Wrexham

From the Leader

A family of Gypsies is living on a church car park, without running water or electricity, after being kicked off land they called home.

Lisa Evans and her husband Jeremy Wells were forced off their plot in Daisy Lane, Rossett, where they had been living for the last four years after Wrexham Council brought them before the civil courts.

They were threatened with prison if they did not abide by an order to leave by September 19.

The Romany gipsy couple had been fighting for the right to stay for months and were desperate to avoid going back on the road for the sake of their six children, aged between four and 12.

They believe the council needs to do more to help Traveller families like theirs, especially after the authority was forced to scrap its local development plan earlier this year partly because of insufficient provision for gipsies and travellers.

In the meantime the family has taken refuge on the car park of Christ Church, Chester Road, Rossett, and all eight of them are sharing one small caravan.

“We feel like we’re homeless,” Lisa said.

“We’ve got no toilets or running water so we’re having to rely on the local pub and public toilets to wash in.

“I’m paying a fortune for the launderette and Jeremy, who has to have daily injections for arthritis, is having to go back and to to his friend’s house in Pandy because we haven’t got any electricity to keep the needles cool.

“I’m so stressed and run off my feet and with winter on its way we’re getting so cold.
“I can’t bear the thought of us having to stay here for Christmas.”

The couple were offered a house in Plas Madoc but they claimed it was too far away from where the children go to school at Darland High School and St Peter’s Primary School, both in Rossett, and they could not afford the cost of the journeys.

And after seeking legal advice they rejected the house believing the council has an obligation to find them accommodation closer to school.

“It was devastating to have to leave Daisy Lane,” Lisa added.

“I was crying and all the children were crying. We feel like we’ve been pushed out of our home and that’s really hard for the kids to deal with. We feel awful about being a nuisance to the church but we have nowhere else to go.”

The family own a house in Cefnybedd but Lisa said: “We just couldn’t live there anymore because we got so much trouble for being Gypsies. We had car tyres slashed and our children were called names. They were terrified.

“The council needs to do more to make sure Traveller families don’t have to put up with this.”

Nobody was available at Wrexham Council on Friday to comment on the family’s situation, but regarding the local development plan, Lawrence Isted, head of community wellbeing and development, said: “The council is in the early stages of preparing a new assessment of need within the Gypsy and Traveller community which will inform the drafting of fresh policies and site allocation if required.

“It is anticipated the assessment will be completed next year.”