Travellers’ site issue ‘will not go away’ - Yorkshire

From the Press

THE York Travellers’ Trust claims City of York Council should be applauded for trying to find new sites for Gypsies and Travellers, because existing sites are becoming seriously overcrowded.

Chief Officer Christine Shepherd said pitches designed for one caravan often had two or even three sited there, because Traveller children who had grown up and wanted to live in their own caravan had nowhere else to put them.

The trust also claimed Travellers had been an integral part of York’s society for generations but had been isolated, ignored and marginalised for too long.

The voluntary organisation, which is largely funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and tries to work as a bridge between the Traveller and settled communities, also urged opponents of proposed new sites to think about the hurtful impact that some of their comments could have.

Trustee Stephen Pittam said: “When Travellers watch TV and see the whole of York seems to be saying ‘We don’t want you’, it has an impact on them. It can widen the gulf between the two communities when we should be trying to bring them together.”

The comments came as opposition grows to proposals in York’s draft Local Plan to allocate land at Dunnington for a new Travellers’ site, and at Knapton for a showpeople’s yard.

A series of packed public meetings at Dunnington have been held this week, revealing widespread concerns about the impact on the village.

Mr Pittam said neither the trust nor York’s Travellers had been consulted on the sites which had been identified.

The first he knew of the proposals was when he read about them in The Press and he could not say whether the locations were suitable for Travellers.

But he said: “The travelling community has long been ignored and dismissed to a huge degree, but we have an accommodation problem and it’s not going to go away by ignoring it.

“City of York Council should be applauded for at least trying to do something about it.”