Talking about Gypsies and Travellers Michael Hargreaves Irish

Talking about Gypsies and Travellers Michael Hargreaves, Irish Traveller Movement in Britain

Will cover • The challenge to Big Fat Gypsy Wedding • ITMB Research Findings • The local narrative – Chorley, South Cambs & Basildon

Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier

The Advertising Standards Agency Review • 372 initial complaints to ASA dismissed out of hand • ITMB and Howe & Co lodged an appeal to the independent ASA adjudicator • He asked ASA to undertake a formal review

Findings • The campaign was irresponsible, endorsed prejudice against Gypsies and Travellers, was guilty of depicting a child in a sexualised way, and was likely to have caused mental & moral harm to children • Central to the finding was the evidence of the impact on bullying, attacks on girls in schools • The first time a regulatory body has recognised prejudice against Gypsies and Travellers

That was the posters • Ofcom has now announced an investigation of the programmes as a whole

Planning for Gypsies & Travellers: The Impacts of Localism, June 11 • http: //irishtraveller. org. uk/wpcontent/uploads/2011/09/ITMB_Planning_for_Gypsie s_and_Travellers 11. pdf • Responses from 100 councils in 3 regions • With RS abolition the 3 regions the targets they recognised to fall from 2, 919 to 1, 395 – 52% • 40% of respondents expressed concerns about increased local opposition to development for Travellers under a community based planning system

Planning for Gypsies & Travellers: The Impacts of Localism • Communities believe they can expect to have proposals they oppose rejected • Widespread delay & uncertainty among LPAs in progressing their development plans • Reticence to go beyond defining criteria to identifying and allocating sites

Gypsy & Traveller Site Funding under the Coalition, March 2012 • http: //irishtraveller. org. uk/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/HCA-Site-Funding. Report-v. 62. pdf • £ 60 m Traveller Pitch Fund - January 2012 £ 47 m of grants • 110 transit, replacement, Showpeople. So 510, not 620. • No relationship between need & allocations. Parts of the Midlands, SW, Yorks, NE did reasonably well.

Gypsy & Traveller Site Funding under the Coalition • Many areas unwilling to bid. Essex, Kent, Cambs, Surrey, Herts 25% of caravans, 4% of funds • Unitaries 46% of new site funds • Housing Associations not interested • Too many extensions • Sites identified for less than half new pitches, less than 20% have permission

Chorley 1 • Council consistently claimed no Travellers in Chorley • Reflects sites provided after 1968 Act • But also lack of knowledge • Officers afraid to engage • No change with change of leadership • Residents paid for own barrister

Chorley 2 • 2 appeals, continued objection after CLG conceded 2 nd inspectors report unsound, prosecution for non compliance, seeking an injunction • Tenacity, fear of unsafe sites • Stress, health impacts

South Cambs 1 • No town, 101 parish councils • Significant Gypsy & Traveller numbers, lots of temporary permissions • Smithy Fen, Willingham, Fen Road • 2 public sites – all 29 pitches English Gypsies • Local plan work put aside – lost the opportunity to include in major developments

South Cambs 2 • New needs assessment • Trying to reopen a 10 pitch site against massive local opposition, so it can address local issues in Willingham & Smithy Fen • OK to give 2 nd & 3 rd temporary permissions and move people around

Reopening Mettle Hill • Notorious travellers’site set to reopen. A travellers’ site which was shut down when it became a hotbed of crime and vandalism is set to reopen • Taxpayers to pay £ 3 m for travellers’ sites • Coachloads of villagers oppose travellers’ site • MP: ‘Keep Traveller site shut’

Some Comments by Councillors • Mervyn Loynes - I’d put a minefield around all of them • Deborah Roberts – Travellers should be left to stew in raw sewage • Would launch a suicide bomb on Smithy Fen, if she had cancer

And the Housing Portfolio Holder • F*** off Gypos – Councillor Mark Howell • Could the County put up some of these? • A private joke between friends in the Independent group

Basildon • Too many Travellers • Have acted illegally • Rejected opportunity to solve – offer of HCA land • Assumed they would disappear • Don’t deal with them as people, Traveller liaison officers are enforcement. Compare local police

Ministers’ Messages? • Pickles pledges ‘to stop the caravans in their tracks’ with new instant stop notices. ‘You know the story: in breach of planning law, travellers move in over a bank holiday weekend and it takes years for councils to remove them’ • £ 1. 2 m grant for the eviction • A widespread perception that the system is unfair and that it is easier for one group to gain permission, particularly on sensitive Green Belt