Councils should provide traveller sites, say Committee of MPs

[tliouk]

MPs spark row over travellers' sites
Mon Nov 8 2004
ITV News Online
Ref: http://www.itv.com/news/britain_1262045.html

Councils should be forced to set aside land for gypsies and 
travellers, MPs have said. 

A House of Commons committee said there was a shortage of legal sites 
but that councils would only provide them if the Government forced 
them to. 

In a highly controversial move it said the Government should 
introduce a duty on all local authorities to lay on sites. 

Around 3,500 travellers in England have no legal place to park their 
caravans. 

This means they end up parking illegally, causing anger and 
frustration within communities. 

In its report the committee said the situation would only improve if 
councils provided more legal sites. 

However, few would voluntarily provide sites because of hostility 
from communities. 

Villagers fear they will be overwhelmed with local services, such as 
schools, placed under great strain. 

But the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister indicated it was unlikely 
to go ahead with the move. 

In a statement it said a duty was "not necessarily an appropriate 
solution" and had been tried unsuccessfully in the past. 

Labour MP Andrew Bennett, who chairs the committee, said: "Conflict 
between gypsies and travellers and the settled community has steadily 
escalated in recent years. It is a disgrace. In a supposedly 
civilised society people ought to be able to tolerate each other. 

"The settled community often finds well-paid work for gypsies and 
travellers but too often refuses to find space for them to live. 

"The problem will only be resolved when the Government requires all 
local plans to have designated land for gypsies and travellers and 
all local authorities have a statutory duty to provide sites - and 
central Government enforces this duty." 

***************************
Travellers win High Court backing
Monday, 8 November, 2004, 13:42 GMT  
BBC News Online
Ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/3992411.stm

Travellers at a site in Cambridgeshire have won the right to take 
High Court action over council plans to evict them. 

The High Court has allowed them to challenge South Cambridgeshire 
District Council's attempt to throw them off land at Smithy Fen in 
Cottenham. 

About 22 applicants, who between them own 13 plots at Smithy Fen, 
were granted permission for the challenge. 

The judge said the case was urgent, and the full hearing should go 
ahead soon. 

However, the full judicial review is not expected to be heard until 
January. Until then, the council may not take action against anyone 
living on the site. 


Quality of village life 

Their argument is that they have a right to private and family life 
under the European Convention on Human Rights. 

But Judge Mr Justice Collins warned travellers generally that the 
courts "would not countenance" the growing practice of gypsies moving 
on to sites and setting up home before formally obtaining planning 
permission. 

He described the practice as "aiming a pistol at the local 
authority's head". 

The council has said it is only seeking to enforce the planning laws -
 at an estimated cost of £350,000 - and defend the interests of local 
residents. 

Council leader Daphne Spink said recently: "The delaying tactics 
being employed by the illegally-camped travellers are very 
frustrating, but we will not be deterred. 

"The people who suffer most in this protracted process are the people 
of Cottenham. 

"The district council shares their concerns, and we are determined to 
do all we can to stand up for them and, indeed, to protect the 
quality of village life throughout South Cambridgeshire." 

Gypsies are facing eviction from their own land this week, 
despite an all-party commission's recommendation today 
(8 Nov) that a duty be placed on local authorities to provide 
spaces for caravan parks. 
Families at Twin Oaks, Ridge, near South Mimms are now 
dug in waiting for Blair to act: will they get a place to go 
or see their caravan site bulldozed, as happened at 
Chelmsford earlier this year.

****** 
S>O>S> EVICTION TAKING PLACE 
SHORTLY OF FAMILIES AT 
TWIN OAKS (see below) 
CHILDREN FACE TRAUMA. 
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR 
MONITORING TEAM 
and PROTEST RALLY 
PROTEST TO COUNCIL: 
(see below) 
****** 


Ustiben report 
> >BIG UK ETHNIC-CLEANSING DRIVE >DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF HOMES By 
Grattan Puxon (call 01206 523528) 
> 
> Hertsmere Borough Council, 
> whose domain includes the world-famous 
> Elstree film studious, is about to spend 
> 250,000 Euro in an ethnic-cleansing 
> operation against nomadic families living 
> on their own land in the district. 
> 
> But they won't be doing the dirty work 
> themselves. Hired for the job is a company 
> called Constant & Co., which boasts that it 
> carries out a hundred such "move-ons" every 
> month. 
> 
> Spokesman at Twin Oaks caravan park 
> Patrick Egan says the council has warned that 
> Constant will take all the caravans and mobile 
> homes and lock them in a pound. "They want 
> to take our homes away," he said, "and put us 
> in a hostel for the homeless." 
> 
> He is concerned that his mother, who is 
> critically ill and in a wheelchair, will not survive 
> such a traumatic ordeal. Her doctors says she should 
> not be moved. 
> 
> The eviction at Summerwood Lane, Ridge, 
> near London's M25 motorway, which could take 
> place Monday (8 Nov) is only one of dozens 
> now pending. In the past l8 months, more than 150 
> plots on private caravan parks owned by Romanies 
> in the UK have been destroyed in "direct action" 
> operations. 
> 
> A large-scale eviction at Smithy Fen, 
> near Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, was only called 
> off because a judge granted the go-ahead for a 
> judicial review. South Cambridgeshire council 
> is bent on destroying 22 plots there because they 
> lack planning consent. 
> 
> Patrick McCarthy owns one of more than 30 
> plots which have been licensed. But because his land 
> would have to be crossed to reach the so-called 
> "illegal" plots, the council are taking action in the 
> high court to revoke his licence. 
> 
> Meanwhile, in neighbouring Bedfordshire, 
> the model Romani-owned Woodside caravan park 
> is again under threat. In 2002 Mid-Beds council 
> hired Constant to plough up many of the 50 plots 
> here, leaving the last residents surrounded by 
> mud and broken paths. 
> 
> Unless an appeal to the House of Lords is 
> allowed, an eviction operation could be mounted 
> shortly. Some l5 plots would be "cleared" and 
> families thrown back on the road. 
> 
> Cliff Codona, chairman of the National 
> Travellers Action Group, who attended the recent 
> VII World Romani Congress in Italy, says the 
> council have already spent 1.5 million Euro 
> trying to get rid of him. 
> 
> "I've been monitoring all the recent 
> evictions," said Codona. "Hundreds more families 
> face the same fate. This is now ethnic-cleansing 
> on a big scale." 
> 
> He believes that many local councils are 
> determined to get rid of Gypsies ahead of any 
> reforms that the Government may bring in. A 
> review of Government policy is due to be published 
> soon. 
> 
> Official figures show that the number of 
> council-run caravn sites has dropped from 327 
> to 313 since l997. At the same time, the number 
> of Traveller caravans in England alone has risen 
> from l2,796 to l4,362. 
> 
> In response, the NTAG and other front-line 
> groups, including the National Association of Gypsy 
> Women, have formed a human rights monitoring group 
> to be present at and report on evictions. It has the 
> support of the Trans-European Roma Federation. 
> 
> Already, written evidence and video film 
> from the eviction at Meadowlands caravan park, in 
> Essex, earlier this year, has been submitted to the 
> Commission for Racial Equality and COHRE, the 
> Geneva-based anti-eviction NGO. 
> 
> Kathy Buckland, of the NAGW, whose 
> mobile home was burned during the eviction, is 
> preparing to claim damages against Chelmsford 
> Borough Council and Constant. Police officers have 
> questioned Constant employees over the burning, 
> which they believe was an act of arson. 
> 
> In six months time, a virtual village built 
> at Dale Farm, near Basildon, in Essex., will come 
> under threat of destruction. Growing up over 
> the past 30 years from a small caravan park, the 
> village now has some 1,000 residents, housed 
> in bungalows, mobile-homes and caravans. 
> 
> Basildon council has issued more than 
> 50 enforcement notices against individial land 
> plots. Suspended last year, these notices are due 
> to be executed on 13 May next year. At stake is 
> a collective investment by Romanies and 
> Travellers of more than 8 million Euro. A 
> planning inspector has already warned that any 
> attempt to evict residents from Dale Farm could 
> lead to a serious civil disturbance. 

IF YOU CAN SUPPORT US email:  ustiben.5 at ntlworld.com 
> 
> HELP STOP EVICTIONS 
> by emailing protest to: 
>  democratic.services at hertsmere.gov.uk 
> copy to: 
>  psdpm at odpm.gov.uk 
>  bob.last at fco.gov.ukk