January 2011 Caravan Count

Twice yearly Local Authorities in England  are supposed to undertake a count of Gypsy, Traveller and Showpeople caravans in their area. The results of the January count have just been released. The Guardian's analysis of the data records a 26% drop in unauthorised sites on land not owned by Gypsies or Travellers and an 8% decline decline Gypsy or Traveller owned unauthorised sites (sites without planning permission).

This suggests the previous government's policies towards the provision of Gypsy and Traveller accommodation were starting to have an impact on the number of Gypsies and Travellers with no legal place to live. 

Gypsy Council Response to Planning for Traveller Sites Consultation

The Gypsy Council has set up a  Facebook group to help people respond to the government's Planning for Traveller Sites consultation. It is vital that Gypsies and Travellers make sure their voices heard in this consultation. The Gypsy Council says:

"This is a draft policy for the Government outlining proposed changes to the way planning for Gypsy and Traveller sites are passed in England.

It wants to give the decision making power to local powers - this is known as  'Localism' - which is likely to be BAD news for Gypsies and Travellers in the UK who already find it difficult to get sites passed under the current system.

It also proposes changes to the way Gypsy and Travellers are defined by the planning system.

The outcome of this policy will decide how future sites are passed.

If we as a community fail to act, and fail to reply with a large voice, we will be left in an even worse situation - with fewer sites getting passed.  Although this policy will only apply in England it will affect Gypsies and Travellers across the UK as fewer sites in England will likely mean a higher demand elsewhere."

Devon Gypsy Fears Eviction From Own Land

A Romany Gypsy has said he fears eviction after a retrospective planning application for eight traveller pitches in Devon was rejected by the council.

Clarence Ware moved into four caravans with his family on a farm he bought in Whitestone, near Exeter. The application for four permanent and four temporary pitches was rejected. Mr Ware will appeal the decision.

Boscarn Parc Play Area and Multi-Use Sports Pitch

Two and a half years' of hard work by a group of young Gypsies from Boscarn Parc in Cornwall has seen a muddy field transformed into a new children's play area and multi-purpose sports pitch.

  

TravellerSpace supported twelve young people in identifying what was needed for  their site and the neighbouring community. Consultation events were held, including a den building session with the Eden Project, which concluded that what was wanted was an area to play sports and playground equipment for the younger children. Visits to other play areas and the Eden Project helped to refine the young people's plans. The young people remained engaged with the long and sometimes frustrating process of preparing funding bids, attending meeting and giving presentations. 

The play and sports area was completed in May 2011 as part of a larger refurbishment of the site. To celebrate the children helped organise a launch party and on a windy day more than fifty people gathered for 5-a-side football competition, a chance to learn circus skills, dance and to play.

Thanks to Pool Academy, Devon and Cornwall Police, Cornwall Council and the Eden Project for their support throughout the project and particularly to the funders who made it possible - Groundwork UK, Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces, Playbuilder Fund and Our Money Your Dream.

Back To The Past - Planning for Traveller Sites

Some thoughts from the Community Law Partnership on the government's draft guidance Planning For Traveller Sites,  which they intend as a replacement for the previous guidance, Circular 01/2006.

Back to the Past  - Planning for Traveller Sites

The government consultation runs until 6th July, so there is still time to have your say.

A short film from Sally Tucker Woodbury

"Why I'm doing this video is to help all the other Gypsies out there that might be coming to your villages to find somewhere to live. To make you have better understanding...to don't believe everything you see on the telly..by and large we're mostly respectable hard working people that pay our taxes and contribute to society" 

A short film from Somerset Romany activist Sally Tucker Woodbury.

Dale Farm House of Lords Debate

"My Lords, will my noble friend comment on the decision to spend £117,000 per family on eviction of these people from the Dale Farm site considering that there are no other sites in the county to which they could be directed? Does this policy not simply mean that another £18 million will have to be spent by local authorities down the line on evicting the same families from even less suitable locations, to say nothing of the downstream costs on health, education and the social costs arising from these evictions?"

Lord Avebury asks the right questions

 A - Z of the Dale Farm Struggle

Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month In Cornwall

GRTHM events confirmed so far for Cornwall:

15th June - St.Day Gypsy and Traveller Women's Group Open Day

1st July (postponed from 17th June) - 10.30 am - 5.00 pm, Trehudreth, Bodmin Moor

 "A roaming celebration of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller culture and traditions set in a beautiful valley on the edge of Bodmin Moor. The culture of oral narrative will be brought alive by storytellers, musicians and performers. There will be presentations of Gypsy and Traveller community lifestyle and history.  A series of celebratory and thought provoking films screened in the yurt cinema. 

• Storytellers / Traveller and Traditional Folktales.
• Roving Musicians and the Gypsy Jazz Band
• TravellerSpace (mobile bus activities for children and families)
• Performers/Fire poi and Juggling      
• Large Gypsy Cob traditional feathered horse
• Traditional Traveller Painted Wagon or Varda expected
• Traveller Michael Lee’s Traveller Films under Canvas in the ‘Yurt Cinema’
• Pat Barr’s Workshop on ‘Traveller Culture and History’
• Musician and Singers from ‘The Institute’ Nanstallon Friends of GRTHM (songs poems and stories)
• Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Nic Harrison-White’s ‘Plants for Medicine, Wild Food and Herbalism’
• Dave Salmon’s ‘Preparing a Rabbit for the Pot’!

For a fun day out, stay and enjoy a picnic with family and new friends in the meadows or in the hay barn, dip toes in the stream..."

The event is free but please book in advance with Nic Harrison-White -  trehudreth@uwclub.net

For further information or enquiries please call 07891 840 348

Pool Business and Enterprise College - display on Gypsy and Traveller history and culture put together by pupils from Boscarn Parc. Times and dates to be confirmed.

New Traveller History

Couple of  websites documenting New Traveller history, with of photos of homes, people, sites, paper cuttings etc:

Traveller Homes

Travellers' Archive 

Skint Government Finds £5.85 million to Evict Travellers

Dale Farm: Home Office pledges cash for eviction costs

"The Home Office has announced it will pay up to £4.65m towards the cost of evicting Travellers and Gypsies from an illegal site in Essex. The money will go towards policing the clearance of Dale Farm, between Billericay and Basildon.The announcement comes after the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed it would contribute £1.2m towards the eviction.

 

Great Dorset Steam Fair

The organisers of the Great Dorset Steam Fair have put in a planning application for a site to which Gypsies and Travellers will be directed from any unauthorised encampments for three weeks around the fair. The site, north-west of Tarrant Hinton, will be accessed from the A354 Salisbury Road.

Great Dorset Steam Fair organisers offer new site

Update 26.07.11 Planning permission granted for five years use as a transit site.