Police Call for More Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Sites in the Wake of Tensions over Illegal Sites
16 December 2004
On August 8, 2004, The Observer reported that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) called for a rash of new official stopping sites for Gypsy/Travellers to alleviate tensions between Gypsy/Travellers, forced to illegally stop on land due to a shortage of sites, and local non-Gypsy/Travellers. According to ACPO, police are experiencing difficulties in handling clashes resulting from Gypsy/Travellers who have built on land illegally because there are no places for them to stop legally, the daily reported. Most residents call for the eviction of Gypsy/Travellers from the land they occupy, supported by claims of increased crime in the area. However, Ms Margaret Wood, ACPO spokesperson on Gypsy/Traveller issues, was quoted as having stated, “You hear things such as ‘When the group arrived, crimes soared’ and sometimes find that actually in the area of some of these unauthorized encampments crime reduced dramatically”. According to The Observer, ACPO and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) are demanding amendments to the housing bill to create a legal duty on local council to provide sufficient sites for Gypsy/Travellers. Ms Sarah Spencer, deputy chairman of the CRE, called discrimination against Gypsy/Travellers “the last socially acceptable form of racism”.
Earlier, the BBC reported on July 20 that Travellers had launched numerous appeals against the rejection of seventeen requests for planning permission at the Smithy Fen site near Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, claiming discrimination. Mr Alan Masters, speaking on behalf of the families appealing the decisions, stated that the land in question is not in the green belt, nor an area of outstanding beauty or specific scientific interest; three areas on which the construction of accommodation sites is prohibited by law. Ms Melissa Murphy of the South Cambridgeshire District Council stated the council felt granting permission for additional sites would harm Cottenham and the area. Local residents have fought hard against and increase of sites at Smithy Fen: in March they threatened to withhold taxes and in June threatened to erect a “Gypsy camp” outside Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s home (further information is available at: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=1985). Mr Rick Bristow of the Cottenham Residents’ Association was quoted as having stated, “The situation now is that we seek dismissal of all appeals […] parts of Cottenham Village have been victim to crass anti-social behaviour and appalling incidents of intimidation”.
In other news, on June 30 the BBC reported that earlier that morning, about one hundred police officers in riot gear and bailiffs executed a High Court eviction order at a Traveller site in Bulkington, Warwickshire County. In January of this year, police unsuccessfully attempted to evict the group of twenty-one Traveller families from land they had purchased (for background information, see: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=1889). The families had not sought planning permission before moving onto the site. During the eviction, four persons were arrested, according to the BBC, but were subsequently released without charge. Mr David Wilshaw, legal representative for the families, was quoted by the daily as having stated that the bailiffs had shown up without any prior warning, though the Hugh Court had stipulated co-operation.
(BBC, ERRC, The Observer)
