Gloucestershire County Council may hand over Traveller sites

SHIRE Hall could soon transfer responsibility for Traveller and Gypsy sites across Gloucestershire to a housing association after admitting it cannot afford to run them.

The county council is going to hand four sites to new owners after a report stated they were no longer part of the council's "core business".

 

It currently costs £100,000 of taxpayers' money to maintain them.

The sites set to go are Showborough, near Twyning, with 10 plots; Culkerton, near Tetbury, which has four plots; the Willows in Sandhurst Lane, Gloucester, with 46 plots and Cursey Lane in Elmstone Hardwicke with 19 plots.

The council plans to hand them over to a housing association.

The sites are currently all full, with a long waiting list, such is the demand from the travelling community to come to Gloucestershire.

A council report, which is due to be debated on Thursday at Shire Hall, reveals the authority has failed in getting new Government grants to relieve some of the pressure on its budget for maintenance of the sites.

It states: "We are unable to access affordable homes programme grants to fund the maintenance of the sites, and in the light of challenging budget pressures there is a need to explore alternatives for good quality, financially sustainable provision for the residents." A total of 72 questionnaires have been handed to Travellers on the plots about the change, and 95 per cent of them said they did not want the sites handed to private owners.

Bosses at Shire Hall are finalising plans for one unnamed social landlord to run them all instead, a move which was widely accepted.

Councillor Mark Williams (Con, Sandhurst), said: "The Willows site is not as bad as it used to be, it is well run and the ethos is 'behave, or you are out. If the council cannot afford to run them anymore, the best option would be to give them to a housing association, not a private owner."

But the travelling community remained cautious about the move. A spokesman for the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups said: "A responsible housing association would likely do a good job, but local authorities have years of expertise in this area already."
T
he report will be discussed by the environment scrutiny at 10am. The county council's Conservative cabinet will make a decision on Wednesday, February 1.

Pitches give Travellers £3.5m ‘incentive to live near family’ - Bath

One of the region’s most outspoken critics of illegal Gypsy and Traveller sites has welcomed millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on creating new sites in his constituency.

James Gray MP, whose North Wiltshire constituency has been at the heart of planning battles between the authorities and “illegal” Gypsy sites, said he hoped awarding £3.5 million of Government funding to council chiefs would help stop camps springing up in the countryside.

Councils and housing authorities were invited to bid for a portion of £60 million from the Homes and Communities Agency, the quango in charge of housing, and many were awarded millions depending how big an issue a lack of gypsy and traveller sites are locally.

There will be 20 new pitches and the refurbishment of 40 existing ones in Wiltshire with their £3.5 million, while £1.7 million awarded to the Matrix Housing Partnership will create 38 new pitches in Gloucestershire.

Bristol City Council is receiving £600,000 for a dozen new pitches, while North Somerset council will create just two pitches for £134,000.

Mr Gray has long been a critic of the practice by Gypsies and Travellers of buying up green field land in the countryside and creating their own sites while applying for retrospective planning permission.

Most battle for years for permission to stay which is almost always granted in the end.

Mr Gray said: “I view this as a good thing – the more we can create official sites or improve existing ones, then it will encourage Gypsies and Travellers with local connections to remain there.

“This is a perfectly legitimate thing to spend £3.5 million on, in the same way as providing the money for the council to provide new council homes would be. I have no problem with councils providing official places for Travellers and Gypsies from Wiltshire, which is eminently sensible. I do have a problem with people with no connection to the area creating illegal sites without planning permission,” he added.

Council chief Toby Sturgis said the money would reduce the problem of illegal encampments. “As a council we are committed to providing appropriate sites for Gypsies and Travellers and reducing the problem of illegal encampments,” he said.

 “This funding from the government will help to address these issues and provide our Traveller and Gypsy communities with suitable, safe sites on legally approved land.

“It is vital we improve provision in Wiltshire, and to have it funded by the government means less pressure on the council’s own budget,” he added.

Government minister Andrew Stunell said he hoped the millions of pounds would improve relations between Traveller families and local settled communities.

“New authorised sites, with the support of local communities, will be treated on an equal footing as new bricks-and-mortar homes, with councils getting powerful financial benefits for building authorised sites where they are needed,” he said.

Top Gypsy slates council over pitch popularity fear - Bedfordshire

A chief member of the Gypsy and Traveller community has slammed a council for being ‘too scared to be unpopular’ over caravan pitches.

Joseph Jones, who is a spokesman for the National Gypsy Council, said Bedford Borough Council hasn’t done enough to provide locations for the community and says it’s no surprise that more Gypsies are taking to the roadside.

Mr Jones was responding to opposition to his friend’s Patrick Murphy application for a Gypsy site in Felmersham and said that villagers there would find the family friendly.

He said: “I don’t think Bedford Borough Council is a bad council. It’s just like all councils around the UK where every time a Gypsy site is proposed there’s opposition and officials are too scared to be unpopular and the applications are rejected. The only choice families have is to lump all their money together buy land and live on it privately. While report after report is done on Meadow Lane there are Traveller families waiting to live there and they are effectively homeless.

“The people of Felmersham will find Mr Murphy and his family more than friendly if they get to know him. They’ll be surprised.”

A decision is expected to be made on whether to grant permission for three pitches at the site in Carlton Road next month.

A borough council spokesman said: “A decision will be taken on the Stone Pits in line with the council’s Planning Policy.

“The applicant has been asked to submit further information and, as we are pending a response from the applicant, no date has been scheduled in terms of an outcome. In the meantime, the council is pressing ahead with plans to seek planning permission for a permanent Gypsy and Traveller site at Meadow Lane.”

Traveller family urges action on housing after 13-year wait - Dublin

AN EXTENDED Traveller family who have been living without electricity or running water for 13 years have called on their local authority to start building a group housing scheme for which the Department of the Environment sanctioned funding almost a year ago.

The McDonnell family has been living on an unauthorised site at Dunsink Lane in north Dublin, described by Fingal County Council as “unsuitable”, since 1998. Though included in Fingal’s Traveller Accommodation Plan since 2004, they remain on a site with two outdoor cold-water taps, four outside temporary toilets, electricity from a diesel generator and no rubbish collection.

Following contact with the Department of the Environment in the summer of last year, the family received a letter in September from Aisling Glynn, private secretary to the then minister for housing Willie Penrose.
Ms Glynn said: “Approval in principle to Fingal County Council for the development of a Traveller group housing scheme at Cappagh Lands issued from this department last February. It is now a matter for the council to advance the development of the scheme.”

One of the younger family members Anne Marie (22) lives on-site with her seven-month-old daughter Kelly in a small though comfortable caravan which was warm on a morning late last month. “The coal stove is on since this morning, but in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning it is freezing.

The caravan has no insulation and windows are single-glazed. “She’s constantly getting head colds,” Anne Marie says, looking at Kelly. “We have electricity from a generator all the families contribute money for, but it is only for small things like lights and the telly. We can’t have a fridge or a washing machine. I keep the milk in the press and it only lasts a day. It’s warm by the end of the day and who wants to drink warm milk?

“I have to shop every day for fresh groceries, and we go to the launderette once a week.”

To wash, she fills a steel can with water from outside and boils it. The family go three times a week to a local gym where they pay €6 to use the showers.

“I hate living like this. Everything is just harder. If you want water you have to go outside. If you want to go to the toilet you have to go outside. If you want coal, you’ve to go outside. I just want to be in a house with my family around me.

“People ask why we don’t move to a rented house, but I’d feel isolated away from my family. A lot of my family have moved because they couldn’t take it here but they’re back visiting every day they miss it so much.

“We just want to know why the council haven’t started the building. And we’re worried that when they do get round to it the money will be gone.” A spokeswoman said the council acknowledged the McDonnell family had a “clear, identified housing need . . .

“Although the council does provide emergency sanitation and waste collection at the site where the McDonnell family is living, it is an unauthorised site and not suitable for the needs of the families living there.

“Fingal County Council is firmly committed to providing a long-term solution for this family at a new group housing scheme to be built specifically for them. This proposal has been given funding approval in principle from the Department of the Environment and the council is now working to make sure it happens.”

Travellers will be offered sites to avoid repeat of Dale Farm

Moves to create some 800 permanent sites across England for Traveller families will be announced today in an effort to defuse community tensions with settled residents.

Under the £47m initiative, new locations will be found from Cornwall to Co Durham for Travellers, preventing them from having to put their caravans on unauthorised land.

The strains that can follow an influx of Travellers into an area were shown by the clashes over the Dale Farm site near Wickford, Essex, which ended with the eviction of Travellers in October after a 10-year legal fight with Basildon Council.

There are believed to be nearly 19,000 Traveller caravans in England, about 20 per cent of them on unauthorised sites. The award of cash to local authorities and housing associations is combined with stronger powers for councils to remove illegal sites and to stop people applying retrospectively for planning permission.

Andrew Stunell, the Communities minister, told The Independent: "If there are enough authorised and approved sites for the Traveller population, there is no need for an unauthorised or illegal settlement."
He said: "We need to restore confidence in the settled community that there isn't one planning regime for them and a more relaxed regime for Travellers. They are often seen as 'getting away with it', which creates a large amount of friction with the settled community."

The money will be used to provide 884 pitches, of which 617 will be new and 167 will be refurbished. A further £13m is being set aside to develop further pitches. Ministers say that with previous planning laws Whitehall told councils how many sites to allocate to Travellers – a top-down approach that forced some councils to encroach on the Green Belt.

Mr Stunell declared that he was committed to tackling the "endemic discrimination" facing Travellers by making sure they enjoyed the same access as their neighbours to housing and services.

He pointed out that at the moment Travellers have low levels of educational achievement, poor standards of maternal health and also have limited access to financial services.

"All of this creates a cycle of deprivation," he said. "If you are at constant risk of being moved on by police, you aren't able to put down roots."

Council given £3.25m to create and improve Travellers' sites - Hull

EAST YORKS: New Traveller and Gypsy pitches are planned and existing ones will be improved as part of a multi-million-pound scheme.

East Riding Council has successfully bid for £3.25 million from the Government's Homes And Communities Agency to create 19 new pitches and improve 23 others.

Some of the money will be spent extending the existingTtraveller site in Woodhill Way, Cottingham. The council will then explore solutions to provide additional pitches elsewhere.

A council spokesman said: "The council has a statutory duty to assess the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers and this funding will mean the council will meet the outstanding needs of East Riding travellers.

"New and improved provisions will reduce the number of unauthorised sites and the tensions they can create between Travellers and the settled community and reduce the need for costly enforcement action. Authorised sites allow local authorities to tackle the inequalities, in particular health and education, experienced by Travellers. The council will work with the settled community as well as the travelling community in bringing forward any new or improved sites."

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said: "This funding will help provide sites in a way that reflects local need in consultation with the local community."

The money is part of £47 million being spent on traveller sites across the UK. Bids for a further £13 million are still under consideration. Mr Stunell said: "It will assist hundreds of Traveller families find sites where they want to live and foster better relations with the existing communities and councils.

"We are ending the failed system where Whitehall attempted to dictate where sites went. Instead we have brought back fairness to communities and putting travellers and the settled population on a level playing field."

East Riding Council says redeveloping Woodhill Way will mean East Riding taxpayers paying less for remedial work to the site.

Second cash boost for Travellers’ site - Wigan

A WIGAN Traveller camp is to get a second six-figure upgrade in little more than a year.

The £146,000 Government windfall – which comes on top of £200,000 national improvement grant for the same Bickershaw site last year – will secure its future.

The Whitehall announcement came just weeks after a council report said that official Gypsy facilities in the borough needed expanding.

But this money will improve facilities at the existing 16 pitches at the Bickershaw Lane camp – all occupied by one extended family. It means that the local authority will now be unlikely to have to sell off its one and only council-owned Traveller camp.

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said the money will help Traveller families find sites where they want to live, and foster better relations with existing communities and councils.

But one local councillor today called into question the need to spend yet more cash, in straitened times, on a site which benefits so few people.

After the funding announcement, the authority issued a statement saying: “The site at Bickershaw Lane, provides 16 pitches for Gypsies and Travellers, and the long-term future of the site has been at risk due to the poor condition and design of the amenity blocks and the high utility costs which residents have to pay.”

It said the grant would pay for replacement amenity blocks with higher levels of insulation, more modern facilities and a direct electricity supply.

The statement added the bid was part of the council ‘s attempt to secure the long-term future of the site, which may involve developing alternative ways of managing the site to attract private investment/charitable funding, ensuring no financial cost to the council.

But independent councillor Bob Brierley said: “One has to ask whether this is the best use of resources in such difficult times.

“It’s only last year that £200,000 was spent on the Bickershaw site. How come it needs so much more, so soon, for a site which benefits one extended family? If the council can get money to do up a travellers’ site it’s about time it brought residents’ facilities up to date too.”

The £60m nationwide fund will provide and improve 750 traveller pitches nationwide. Mr Stunell said: “This funding will help provide sites in a way that reflects local need in consultation with the local community.

“We are ending the failed system where Whitehall attempted to dictate where sites went. Instead, we have brought back fairness to communities, putting Travellers and the settled population on a level playing field. ”

The toilet and shower lock at Bickershaw date back to the site’s 1974 opening, and it was feared that if money was not found to improve the facilities, the cash-strapped council might have to sell it to a private company or a traveller syndicate.

A recent report to Wigan Council suggested the borough needed to double its number of Gypsy sites.
The first local Gypsy and Traveller Policy is being drawn up to generate greater understanding between settled and transient communities.

Specialists from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities have calculated that the council should be providing at least 39 new traveller pitches and an additional 23 fairground showman winter spaces across the borough within the next three years.

These would be in addition to the three authorised sites at Bickershaw, Goose Green and Aspull Common, which offer a total of 43 pitches (the latter two are privately owned).

Part of the aim is to stop unauthorised use of inappropriate land by Travellers.

Hockley Heath land set for new Solihull Gypsy site battle

Residents in a Solihull village have launched an action group to fight plans for a Gypsy and Traveller site.

Hockley Heath Community – Residents Against Inappropriate Development (HHC-RAID) was formed after land in School Road was put forward in Solihull Council’s ‘call for sites’ exercise to decide how future accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers will be met.

Joan Gleadhill, from the group, said: “It is all about protecting the green belt, we are not against Gypsies and Travellers, we are against and would fight any inappropriate development taking place there. Development on adjacent land has been consistently denied by the council because of its green belt status and the same should be done here.”

She added: “The site is on the council’s provisional list, not the list of preferred sites as that hasn’t been drawn up yet, and we are hoping that it won’t be on there.

“We have rallied everyone in the village to put objections to the council and we are in the process of putting together a formal case to say why the site is unsuitable for development.”

The group also raised concerns about safety, saying School Road is “a narrow lane with hazardous bends” and “is wholly inappropriate for the volume and type of additional traffic this proposal would generate”.

It also said there was a lack of medical and education services in the village.

They have enlisted the help of David McGrath, chairman of Meriden RAID, which won its battle against Gypsies setting up an illegal camp in their village.

Several other sites in the borough have been proposed as part of the consultation, including at Balsall Common and Hampton-in-Arden.

Solihull Council has stressed that no decisions on site allocations have been made and said all suggested sites will need to be closely assessed before the council undertakes further consultation.

Councillor Ian Courts, cabinet member for economic development, said: “Each suggested site will be assessed for its potential suitability and updated evidence of need will be considered before a list of preferred sites is published for further consultation with our residents.”

Wiltshire Traveller sites receive £3.5m of government money

Nearly £3.5m of government funding has been awarded to the council for official Traveller sites in Wiltshire.

It comes after UK councils were invited to bid for a portion of £60m of government funding overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The aim is to help Traveller communities with better facilities and reduce unauthorised sites.

Twenty new pitches will be created in the county and 40 existing ones will be improved.
 
'Foster better relations'

Toby Sturgis, cabinet member for planning at Wiltshire Council, said: "As a council we are committed to providing appropriate sites for Gypsies and Travellers and reducing the problem of illegal encampments. This funding from the government will help to address these issues and provide our Traveller and Gypsy communities with suitable, safe sites on legally approved land. It is vital we improve provision in Wiltshire, and to have it funded by the government means less pressure on the council's own budget."

Communities minister Andrew Stunell said the money would help hundreds of Traveller families find sites and "foster better relations with the existing communities and councils".

"New authorised sites, with the support of local communities, will be treated on an equal footing as new bricks-and-mortar homes, with councils getting powerful financial benefits for building authorised sites where they are needed."

After successful bids elsewhere in the West, the Matrix Housing Partnership has been awarded £1.7m in funding for 38 new pitches in Gloucestershire, Bristol City Council will receive £600,000 for 12 new pitches and North Somerset Council will receive £134,000 for two new pitches.

Government gives Plymouth £790,000 to build 15 new pitches for Travellers

PLYMOUTH has been given £790,000 to build 15 new pitches for Travellers and Gypsies in the city.

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell today announced the successful bids for £60million of funding that will provide hundreds of new authorised pitches as well as new facilities for Travellers on official sites.

This includes £1.2m for 30 new pitches across Cornwall, £1.1m for 15 new pitches in Teignbridge and £790,000 for 15 new pitches in Plymouth.

The Homes and Communities Agency have completed their assessment of bids and have recommended offers from successful councils and other organisations that will deliver over 750 new and improved pitches at a cost of £47m.

New bids for the remaining £13 million of the £60 million budget will continue to be considered and the Agency will help those who had their bids rejected to improve and resubmit their offers so that further pitches can be delivered over the next three years.

This new support for official Traveller pitches goes hand in hand with action against unauthorised Traveller sites. Through the Localism Act, the Government is introducing stronger powers for councils to tackle the abuse of retrospective planning permission. These strengthened powers are helping councils tackle any form of unauthorised development.

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said: "This funding will help provide sites in a way that reflects local need in consultation with the local community. It will assist hundreds of traveller families find sites where they want to live and foster better relations with the existing communities and councils."

The Plymouth money will go to Devon and Cornwall Housing Association.

In August last year Plymouth City Council approved plans to create 55 new Gypsy and Traveller pitches in the city at three sites - Efford, St Budeaux and Belliver.

Those plans include 15 pitches at Broadley Park Road, on land currently owned by the council.