the persecution of Travellers

[Mark Brown]

At paynes lane, the elderly couple being evicted have lived on the land they 
own for 14 years, and locals who have moved into new homes built 4/5 years 
ago have been lobbying for them to be moved on.

But, as with every other traveller issue, this story is not entielrly black 
and white. It is clear that other families who also lived on the site and 
who have now moved on were responsible for behaviour which upset other 
residents - though this pales into insiginificnace in relation to those 
anti-social behaviours which are mentioned in your quotes.

Clearly, there are many "travellers" out there who have caused great 
discomfort and inconvinience to local residents over the years. But it would 
be intellectually dishonest to say that a few bad eggs has ruined it for the 
rest. The policy towards travellers has been one of exclusion and 
extermination of an alternative-way-of-life - a sophisticated combination 
of: removal of local council's proactivity for travellers (after the repeal 
of the Caravans Act in 1994 and local authorities provision of traveller 
sites), encouragement to buy (during the Tory policy drive on 
owner-occupation), deliberate misinformation and lack of support within many 
local authorities regarding the planning process, and a pursuance of 
eviction through the planning process supported by quite malicious 
victimisation in many instances. The problem that has manifested over time 
is a blanket discrimination towards travellers generally - with local 
councils prefering to execute an "Out-of Sight - Out-of-Mind" policy instead 
of a proactive policy which makes provision for travellers subject to clear 
standards to which they must adhere to. Meanwhile, the prejudices of little 
Englanders bourne out in a latent extermination policy against alternative 
lifestyles have been seen to be justified - justifying a clean sweep of 
local provision for travellers up and down the land. The latest wave of 
evictions of travellers through the planning process is really the last wave 
- of travellers who had been encouraged to buy land after the repeal of the 
Caravans Act in 1994 and local authorities provision of traveller sites. 
This wave of evictions are from travellers who have had the financial and 
intellectual clout to appeal within the planning process; many travellers 
have already walked away from land they bought because they did not 
understand the legal process and were given no advice from local councils. 
Some travellers have been subjected to victimisation. Most have simply been 
given woeful support and have even been deliberately misinformed (encouraged 
to sign documents they shouldn't have signed, in the absence of legal 
advice). Clearly, the self-support structures within travelling communities 
were not there.


The long -term problem has also been that with council after council washing 
their hands of travellers, this only goes to reinforce some travellers' 
uncaring attitude towards civil society, and so, explains the profiliration 
of conflict from various elements of the travelling comunity (though for 
some, this was always there).

>From: "John" <john.burns-curtis at bigfoot.com>
>To: "Mark Brown" <markibrown at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Sun 22nd August: Essex - Protest against the persecution of 
>Travellers
>Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:55:50 -0000
>
>--- In diggers350 at yahoogroups.com, "Mark Brown" <markibrown at h...>
>wrote:
> > Unfortunately, this Sunday's TLIO meeting is
> > clashing with the Paynes Lane
> > Rally (details below) in support of travellers
> > who are facing eviction from
> > their home in Paynes Lane, Epping, on the
> > grounds that they have not been
> > granted planning permission (as usual).
> > This is on top of the fact that the
> > families at this site have been subjected
> > to a racist-hate campaign from
> > some locals,
>
>In the risk of being flamed and being called a racist bigot I will
>say it as it is. Travellers largely, only have themselves to blame
>for any so called "persecution" against them.
>
>I'm sure there are clean, tidy, law abiding travellers who respect
>others, but as yet I have not met any.  In my experience of them I
>would say they "persecute" the people they uninvitingly live with,
>paying mostly nothing in any taxes, as the locals do.
>
>Every unauthorised traveller camp, large or small, ends up littered
>in filth.  Burglaries and thefts rise when they enter the area.  One
>of the reasons builders now use plastic pipes on the fist fix on new
>houses, rather than copper, is so that the travellers will have no
>copper pipes to rip out overnight.  In any pub they frequent in
>numbers fights are common. The children are mainly dirty and totally
>undisciplined, causing vandalism and problems with any local children
>they come in contact with.  Parental discipline is mainly just
>absent.  They are just very bad neighbours who understandably no one
>wants around.
>
>When they are eventually moved on (some councils are better than
>others at getting rid of them), it costs the local council's many
>£1000s to clear up after the mess they leave behind, money that could
>be better spent on the local communities.  Over the year many
>councils spend £100,000s clearing up after them and in legal and
>police costs.
>
>On the whole, travellers contribute nothing towards the communities
>they impose themselves upon, not only that, deface the locality and
>persecute the locals.  In short, parasites, who give nothing, but
>take a lot.
>
>It is not as if these people are pursuing a certain idyllic lifestyle
>away from the mainstream, as most immediately sign on the local dole.
>
>This is my personal experience of them, and I do not like them
>anywhere near me.  When I see a caravan parted I immediately call the
>local police who immediately start eviction proceedings.
>
>They only have themselves to blame.  None of them ever try to get
>their act together.  Just by being clean and tidy and respectful of
>the locality and people they would gain some sort of respect.  This
>is obviously too much for their mentality.  Many live close to
>council tips, but never take any rubbish there, just dumping it in
>bushes or on open ground.
>
>Before people start taking about persecution of these people, stop,
>think and look.
>
>I did a search and found these. I share mainly the same view....by
>experience:
>
> >>>>>>>
>(Before going on I'm using the term traveller to mean "traditional"
>Irish tinkers, Romanies, "gypsies" in other words. I have no intimate
>experience of "new age" travellers so please excuse them from the
>following rant.)
>
>I quite agree with the spirit of Phil's post and for the public
>benefit of anyone who reads this post may I say (in complying with
>Phil's suggestion).
>
>I hate all travellers!
>
>...and for the benefit of Phil, please name one traveller who does
>not live of the proceeds of theft, one who does actually look for
>honest work (don't mind me slipping in honest there did you? Burglary
>artifice is very rewarding but its not very socially aware), name a
>traveller who doesn't through his or her shot all over the place or
>even one who has been known to even pick up a single piece of litter.
>
>And just for the record I spent most of my working day today visiting
>the Star Lane gypsy site, the two on the Old Maidstone Road and the
>Powerscroft site (first two in the borough of Bromley the second is
>just over the border and into Bexley), I visit them every week,
>sometimes on several occasions, speak with the occupants of the sites
>and their extended families who live on (and terrorise) the
>neighbouring council estates. Prior to this I've worked with them in
>Lewisham and Rotherhithe and prior to me moving to this cess pit of a
>capital city I've had extended dealing with them in Lancashire and
>Dorset. I have yet to meet a single one of them that was in the
>slightest bit honest or had the slightest regard for anyone outside
>of their family groups.
>
>--
>dormouse
><<<<<<
>
> >>>
>Ahhhh, Philip! - that was a most elegantly-worded defence, but was,
>sadly, completely at odds with the established facts!
>
>New Age Travellers, Romanies, Gypsies - does it really matter what we
>call them, they are, at the end of the day, bloody idle scroungers!
>In spite of their vainglorious claims that they are a social schism,
>a self-sustaining entity which has chosen to 'opt-out' of society,
>why, pray tell, are they to be found in the dole queues with alarming
>regularity?!
>
>Their lifestyle warrants NO respect at all! - it is a merely a facade
>to justify a life of indolence!, of sloth!, and of bloody lazing
>about smoking dope!  They are the last vestige of the abominable
>hippy culture that plagued Britain towards the end of the 1960s!
>
>Up and down the country they go, dragging their convoyed trailers
>behind them, looking for a new rural beauty spot to contaminate with
>their incessant littering!  The poor locals, and police, stand
>powerless as a tranquil village green is transformed overnight into a
>public eyesore!
>
>Their shabby, urchin-like children leap out of the dilapidated
>caravans, eagerly scouting the area for vulnerable properties to
>ransack during their short stay! - washing lines are stretched across
>the road, flower beds trampled, and rivers converted into a dumping
>ground for their chemical toilets!  And heaven protect the poor local
>who refuses to buy their lace products, lest his entire family be
>cursed!
>
>When the eviction order is ultimately granted, the unholy convoy
>chugs off into the sunset in a cloud of toxic fumes, leaving behind a
>sea of litter and burnt-out spliff ends!  The locals breathe a sigh
>of relief, before embarking upon the arduous clear-up operation - to
>restore a now urine-drenched stinkpit back to the village green that
>was once the pride of the community!
>
>These people are, quite simply, social parasites who grab all they
>can with one hand, simultaneously extending their middle finger to
>the decent, hard-working folk with the other!  The notion that they
>make a positive contribution to society is ludicrous!
>
>Unless, of course, lucky heather has become big business on the
>commodity markets!
>
>Every Blessing,
>
>The Reverend Stephen Mooney
><<<
>
>
>

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