Children of the Road

Dale Farm seen through the eyes of the children and young people who live there.

"As the future of the Travellers' camp is placed under threat, this programme follows these youngsters as they live on the margin of society, sharing their hopes and aspirations for the future as they face a period of change."

Available on iplayer until 2nd June

Travellers Got Talent

The Sun has apparently forgotten that a few years ago they were calling for people to "stamp on the camps" and is now publicizing  Travellers Got Talent. Travellers Got Talent is a national talent contest for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, which will be featured in a new eight part TV series this summer, A Gypsy Life For Me.

  

Travellers Got Talent in the Sun

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Travellers Got Talent contestant 

James Hawkins with Harley

Gypsy and Traveller Film and TV

Good collection of Gypsy and Traveller film and TV available to view here

Travellers: 'A generation of children growing up ... knowing that they're not wanted'

New Sites For Travellers Will Be Created In Brighton

"New sites for Gypsies and Travellers will be created in Brighton and Hove under plans by the Green council. The newly elected council has vowed to identify land to meet the needs of the travelling community and increase provision in the city.

It comes after Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas supported a motion in Parliament that, if passed, would encourage councils not to evict Travellers from a site unless there was suitable provision elsewhere."

A Big Or Divided Society?

Final Recommendations and Report of the Panel Review into the Impact of the Coalition Government Policy on Gypsies and Travellers


The Report was launched at a reception in the Jubilee Room of the House of Commons on the 11th May 2011 at a reception hosted by Lord Avebury and Andy Slaughter MP. Lord Avebury says:


“In the report, a number of experts and key stakeholders have expressed fears that the Government’s localist agenda could well bring to a halt Traveller site construction in the UK. If this is so, it will impact negatively on the welfare of Gypsy and Traveller families; increase the number of unauthorized encampments and developments, and burden the wider community with expense and inconvenience. I will therefore be proposing amendments to the Localism Bill placing a statutory duty on local authorities to grant sufficient planning permissions for Gypsy and Traveller sites to accommodate Gypsies residing in or resorting to their area. The test of sufficiency will be the numbers arrived at through the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessment, together with the Public Inquiries that followed. The Secretary of State will have the power to direct local authorities which fail to achieve these numbers, by analogy with the power given to the Minister to issue directions to local authorities to provide sites in the Caravan Sites Act 1968”.


The report was based on two days of hearings which took place in Parliament at which a range of stakeholders presented evidence. Download the report here

Government Consulting on Scrapping the Equalities Act 2010

As part of their Red Tape Challenge the government are consulting on the possibility of scrapping the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act 2010 consolidated and simplified the various Acts and Regulations which form the basis of anti-discrimination law in the UK. 

Although it is very unlikely that the Act will actually be scrapped, the fact that the government could even consider it up for discussion should be of concern.

Have your say here

Marley Head (Plymouth) Travellers Vow to Stay

“Where are we supposed to go? The government are meant to give us specific sites, but they haven't.

“We have children enrolled in schools around here, and there is a lady in remission from cancer on the site. Now is not the time to move on. We will have to see what the planning agency says tomorrow.”

"Would you like us scattered all over Dartmoor, where we'll get called an eyesore? Or do you think it's safer here? "We're enclosed, we're paying rates, we're working, we've got children in school."

Somerset Gypsy site plan recommended for approval

Planning officers are advising councillors to agree to a controversial application to build a gypsy and caravan site on fields on the outskirts of Coleford.

Traveller children's education slips down list of council priorities

Campaigners express concern over public service cuts and measures in the Localism Bill that are likely to have a detrimental effect on the educational opportunities of Gypsy and Traveller children.

 'Cliff Codona, chair of the National Travellers Action Group, warned that Gypsy and Traveller families across the country are in "desperate situations".

"The Traveller education services were always there in the past, but now they are disappearing so things are getting harder and harder," he said. "The money for Traveller education services is going into the ethnic minority achievement pot - and we're at the bottom of that pot."

He claimed that councils are failing to communicate with local Gypsy and Traveller communities. "Local authorities are not engaging with people to let them know what's happening, so Gypsy and Traveller families do not know who to contact for support," he said. "When people have problems, there is no one there for them to go to."

Pickles Plans a Pogrom

"Locals who are not Gypsies and Travellers are asking "Why don’t we all start building extra houses, if they can get away with it?" As James Heartfield has observed, '... people usually mean it rhetorically. But actually, it is the right question, just put the wrong way around'. If many more people broke the planning law, and argued to be free to build on their own land as a point of principle, Britain would not have a housing shortage. If Pickles persisted with evictions he would be exposed for his intolerance of Gypsies and Travellers, which in this impending pogrom is hard not to see as an expression of racism."

Ian Abley on how developments like Dale Farm could be the solution to the housing crisis.