St Day Gypsy and Traveller Women's Group Open Day 2017

Hard to believe another year has gone by. Join us at Teyluva Children's Centre in St Day to celebrate all that we've achieved over the past twelve months - there'll be art and craft to look at at, displays to read, dancing and food to eat.

Gypsy and Traveller History finds a home at the Cornwall County Records Office

TravellerSpace were delighted to be able to hand over our first batch of Gypsy and Traveller oral history recordings to the Cornwall County Records Office this February. 

Officially handing over our Gypsy and Traveller Heritage recordings on Friday 24th February 2017.
  Mark Curnow, Callum Richards, Vanessa Boase (TravellerSpace), Charley Richards, Shania Davis, Chloe Phillips (CRO)

Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a group of young Gypsies and Travellers in Cornwall have had the opportunity to find out more about their family history and the wider history of their communities. The young people have interviewed older generations to find out how they lived and how their lives have changed. 

The recordings cover a wide range of topics, including trotting races, cooking on the open fire, the importance of religion, and the challenges of facing prejudice.  

A group of pupils from Pool School accompanied TravellerSpace to the Cornwall County Records Office to pass on the first ten recordings, so that the recollections can be accessed by all for generations to come.  

We were made very welcome by Chloe Phillips who showed us around, before we deposited the recordings.  Chloe also showed us how to do quill writing and seal making.  We took with us photographs representing topics covered in the interviews.

 We are very proud of how well the young people have engaged with this project. The students asked great questions, and we have been able to record some absolute fantastic stories.

"It will help other people understand better about Gypsies and Travellers.  People are kinder when they know a little about us" - Project participant Kelly Price

If you would like to be involved in this project - as a participant or volunteer - please get in touch.  

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Job Opportunity with TravellerSpace

TravellerSpace is looking for an Early Years Worker - 15 hours a week £20,972 pro rata (to cover maternity leave).

This post is for an experienced, dedicated worker to co-ordinate our Early Years work with Gypsy & Traveller children. Experience of working with children with challenging behaviour is essential.

The post involves planning appropriate activities for young children, which take place during our weekly Gypsy & Traveller Women’s Group, literacy group and other activities. There are also occasional visits to roadside families in our playbus.

Each pre-school child has their own Learning Journal which needs to be regularly updated; detailed session plans which include learning goals for each activity must be submitted to the Project Manager.

Shortlisted candidates will be required to provide examples of session planning.

For more details email tspace@travellerspace-cornwall.org

Closing date for applications is 10th November.

St Day Gypsy and Traveller Women's Group 15th June, 2016

A Thank You To All Our Funders

Five years' ago we were awarded core funding from the Big Lottery Fund . This allowed TravellerSpace to grow and develop, enabling us to support more Gypsies and Travellers to access services and opportunities and to be heard in decision and policy making processes. That funding came to an end in April of this year, leaving our future looking uncertain.

TravellerSpace worked with a number of different funding bodies looking at ways in which we could strengthen our organisation, continue our current projects and develop new ones.

We are delighted to report that we are now on more stable ground, thanks to the generous support of the following organisations. We owe them a massive debt of thanks for showing faith in TravellerSpace and for recognising the needs of Cornwall's Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Over the next few months we will be developing our new website and exploring ways our friends and supporters can help. In the meantime if you'd like to know more or would consider a donation, please contact us at tspace@travellerspace-cornwall.org

In no particular order we say thank you to:

The Henry Smith Charity

The Tudor Trust

Lloyds Bank Foundation

BBC Children In Need 

The Heritage Lottery Fund

UK Community Foundations and Comic Relief

The Allen Lane Foundation

The Clothworkers' Company

Cornwall Council Gypsy, Traveller and Showpeople Site Consultation

Cornwall Council is launching a public consultation on how and where residential, transit and Showpeople sites can be provided for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople in Cornwall.
The consultation period runs from Monday 25 April until 5pm on Monday 6 June 2016 and will influence the Gypsy and Travelling Communities Site Allocations Development Plan (DPD), to meet needs identified as part of the Cornwall Local Plan.

Cornwall Council needs to provide suitable, well managed sites in appropriate locations, to meet the existing and future needs of Gypsies and Travellers. This will enable the provision of decent homes in the future for these communities and particularly those that need assistance in finding safe and secure sites to live on or stay on whilst they are travelling in Cornwall. The provision of a range of additional authorised sites should help alleviate the problems sometimes experienced when groups of Travellers use unauthorised and unsuitable sites.

Cornwall has a number of approved and authorised Gypsy & Traveller sites, however, there are also unauthorised sites (without planning permission). Evidence available on the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in Cornwall suggest:

• There is a shortage of and a need for transit sites and emergency stopping places;
• More public sites are needed to meet the needs of Travelling communities in addition to the three already provided
• There is a need to facilitate the provision of private sites to meet the expanding needs of Gypsy and Traveller families in Cornwall.

This ‘Scoping document’ marks the formal start of the process of preparing the Gypsy and Travelling Communities Site Allocations Plan. Evidence suggests that by 2030 Cornwall will need an additional:

• 318 residential pitches on both public and private sites, including the  requirement for a new public site or sites to meet the needs of different Traveller groups;
• 60 transit pitches strategically located across Cornwall (15 of these were recently given planning permission) together with a network of emergency stopping places; and
• additional Travelling Showpeople plots.

Cornwall Council cabinet member for planning Edwina Hannaford said: “We want to hear from a wide audience to understand what interested parties think about the proposals in this scoping document before the first version of the Gypsy and Travelling Communities Site Allocations DPD is produced. The Council will engage with key stakeholders and will then consult on the DPD’s content prior to its submission to the Secretary of State.”
Once complete, the DPD will sit alongside the Cornwall Local Plan: Strategic Policies document and the Council’s Gypsies and Travelling Communities Strategy and will provide greater definition as to how key policies relating to Gypsies, Travellers and Traveling Showpeople will be delivered in Cornwall.
As well as being accessible on the Council’s website, hard copies of the ‘Scoping document’ can also be accessed at any Library or One-Stop-Shop. You can also email localplan@cornwall.gov.uk for further information.

All comments should be returned to the Council by 5pm on Monday 06 June 2016.

New Project Gives Young Gypsies and Travellers an Opportunity to Discover Their History

Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), a group of young Gypsies and Travellers in Cornwall will have an opportunity to find out more about their history.

With the help of TravellerSpace, working in partnership with the University of Exeter’s Centre for Cornish Studies, the young people will find out about how older generations of their families lived and document important heirlooms and traditions from the last 100 years. The two year project will include displays, photography, oral history and the chance to work alongside professional historians to record what is discovered. 

"It will help other people understand better about Gypsies and Travellers. People are kinder when they know a little about us" - Kelly Price, project participant

 "We are delighted to have received this grant, and are eager to start supporting the young Gypsies and Travellers of Cornwall to learn new skills in heritage, interviewing, and photography." - Katie Wise, TravellerSpace

'This is a fantastic project, involving young people in researching, recording and sharing the rich heritage of Gypsy and Traveller communities. It's a terrific opportunity for young people to learn a range of new skills which is something that we're really keen to support.' - Nerys Watts, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West

A photograph display will be created and displayed at a number of venues in Cornwall.    

If you would like to be involved in this project, as a participant or volunteer, please get in touch with TravellerSpace.

Cornwall Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment 2015

Need a pitch on a Council site? Want to buy your own ground? Tired of being always moved on? This is your chance to have your say. 

Cornwall Council have commissioned an independent assessment of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in the county. This piece of work follows on from a flawed assessment carried out in 2014. TravellerSpace and Ruston Planning Limited successfully challenged this assessment at Cornwall Council's Local Plan Examination. The Inspector recognised that it was not developed in conjunction with, or informedby, active engagement with representatives of the Gypsy and Traveller Community in Cornwall, so called for it to be carried out again.

This new study will provide Gypsies and Travellers with a way to speak about their accommodation issues and preferences.

TravellerSpace are working in partnership with Southern Horizons Limited and Dr Zoë James, from Plymouth University to talk with Gypsies and Travellers throughout the county over the next month. The study will focus on permanent pitch provision, but will also look at the need for transit sites and also Gypsies and Travellers currently living in housing.

We need to interview as many people in Cornwall as we can, to give the Council a clear picture of what is needed so Gypsies and Travellers have safe and secure places to stop.

The findings will be analysed by the research team and a written report including pitch/plot calculations will be given to the Council by November 2015.  The study findings are expected to help inform the Local Plan, which is the document that guides what development is to take place in Cornwall. 

We understand that people will be worried about passing on information to the Council, particularly if living on an unauthorised site.

All information given will be completely confidential - nothing will identify who you are or where you currently living to the Council.

There are also some separate questions at the end of the main survey about experiences of prejudice and victimisation.  These do not form part of the Needs Assessment and are purely voluntary if people wish to talk about their experiences.  This information will be used (anonymously) by Dr Zoë James as part of an academic study to inform policy around this important area of work, although a short briefing paper about the findings will be also prepared for Cornwall Council.

Why we think it is important to take part

Despite the changes made by the Government as to who will be considered a Gypsy or Traveller for planning purposes, there is still a need and a duty for Councils to find out how many Gypsies and Travellers are in the area and what their accommodation needs are.

The evidence we gather will help at least some people to get planning permission & may support any case for transit sites. It will show where sites are over crowded and where new pitches will be needed in the future as children grow up and have families of their own.

If you or someone you know would like to be interviewed, might be interested in becoming one of our interviewers, or just want to know more please contact 

Caroline on 07939 210 014 or email tspace@travellerspace-cornwall.org

 

Travelling Forward

TravellerSpace are able to offer bespoke qualification courses for Gypsy and Traveller young people aged 14 and over, who are not otherwise in education or employment. We can help with travel and child care if needed. Email or ring the number below for more information.

St Day Women's Group Open Day 2015

St Day Gypsy & Traveller Women's Group will be holding their annual open day on the 17th June, 2015. Everyone's welcome to join our celebration of everything the women & children have achieved in the last year and there's lots to be proud of! If you want to come please ring or email to confirm.