Newport's shame - Travellers' Times

Newport’s national scandal
COUNCIL AND POLICE MOVE TRAVELLERS TO DESPAIR
Until last Christmas Tom and Sarah
Hendry and their daughter Rhiannon
lived in their trailer on land
belonging to Newport Council.
It was illegal, but it was safe. There are no
legal sites in Newport. “We try and keep things
as clean as we can, but there’s loads of
rubbish, lots of it left by other Travellers
passing through,” says Tom who pays £20
a time to take his rubbish to the Council tip.
In November the Council gave the Hendrys
14 days to leave.
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UNHAPPY NEW YEAR
Traveller Sara Rout spent Christmas on
the side of the road with her four young
children after intimidation forced her
from a council-run site in Bridlington.
Sara and her children aged seven, six, three
and two were bullied into quitting East Yorkshire’s
Woldgate site in Bridlington. Management at the
site broke down when a rogue family moved in.
“It used to be a nice site, but there was gorjas
coming on to the site, dealing drugs and driving
people away,” says Sara. “This woman said to
me: ‘Get off the site by 7.00 in the morning or
“We moved them from the land,” explained
a Newport Council spokesman, “because there
was going to be some works going on.”
Mr and Mrs Hendry pulled onto land at a nearby
industrial estate, but Gwent Police moved the
family on after a neighbour complained.
“The police talked of an Anti-Social Behaviour
Order (ASBO) on us for being there,” Tom told TT.
“What can you do? I work here, my child was
born here and I’ve got grandchildren born here.”
By Christmas the Hendrys had been forced onto
the side of a busy Newport road. “It’s too
dangerous for the children,” said Tom, who
recently argued with a van driver, speeding past
the trailer. “He said we shouldn’t be here: he’s
right, but what can you do? I can think of at
least 30 stopping places which have been
closed in the last year.”
Newport Council told TT there was “a joint
protocol with the police for dealing with them
[Travellers]” while Gwent police insisted they
we’ll set fire to your trailer.’ I was scared for
my children’s life.”
Sara’s children were in school. “They’re not in
school any more,” Sara told TT. “To be honest
I’ve put a housing application in. I don’t want
to go in a house, but I don’t want to go through
this again. What can you do?”
were “sympathetic to the needs of travellers”,
pointing out that Newport lacks a site.
“The family were required to leave by police
because unfortunately they had returned to an
area within their three month time limit and
because they were obstructing an open and
used junction. They were told that they could
be committing an offence under the Highways
Act if they stayed.”
The Minister for Gypsies and Travellers in
England, Iain Wright, in an interview with TT
(Issue 33) condemned evictions like these as “a
waste of public money”. Yet the Welsh Assembly
Minister for Social Justice, Brian Gibbons,
refused to condemn them. Or to talk to TT.
TT did not approach the Hendry’s local MP,
Labour’s Jessica Morden, for a comment. She
has actively campaigned against Travelling
people staying on unauthorised sites – even
though her constituency still lacks a single site.
The Welsh Assembly is to spend
£1.7m on improving nine Welsh
Traveller sites. And they are to force
councils to find more sites just as
English councils are obliged to do.
go to www.travellerstimes.org.uk for full details on those site improvements and
comment from Newport Borough Council and Gwent Police on the Hendry fiasco
1 square mile –
it’s all we need
PHOTO: Hilary Smallwood
Just under a quarter of Gypsies and Travellers
living in caravans have nowhere legal to stay. Yet
it would take less than a square mile to solve the
problem in England, according to the Building and
Social Housing Foundation. See a summary of
their latest report, Out in the Open at
www.travellerstimes.org.uk
NATIONAL& LOCALNEWS
Right to sites
The Government is giving English
councils £97 million over the next three
years to take Gypsies and Travellers off
the roadside and onto proper pitches.
Iain Wright, the Minister for Gypsies and
Travellers, said the funding would “help councils
deliver more and better sites for Gypsies and
Travellers, reducing the £18 million annual
enforcement bill, and help improve the health
and education prospects of one of the most
socially excluded groups in the country.”
The new cash comes after publication
of The Road Ahead, from the
Government’s Gypsy and Traveller
Task Group. The report calls for:
councils to find emergency
stopping places to cut down
dangerous, roadside camps;
88 . . . 53 . . . 15!
The strange case of the
disappearing Travellers
When Chichester District Council started
counting the Gypsies and Travellers on their
patch in 2006, they reckoned an extra 88
pitches were needed to meet future demand.
All English councils must do a Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation
Assessment, a GTAA. When Chichester did theirs in June 2007
they decided on 53, not 88. This was, explained Chichester’s
Louise Gibbons, “a reasonable assessment of total need, including
latent demand and concealed families.” But now they’ve
downgraded the number again – to just 15.
The Council blames the South East of England Regional
Assembly, SEERA.
“SEERA requested that all GTAAs should go through a
‘benchmarking exercise’. This raised questions about double
counting and methodology with the result that the site provision
for the District is now based on 15 pitches,” say Chichester.
But SEERA’s planning director, Catriona Riddell, says they have
independent consultants from Birmingham, Salford and Sheffield
Hallam universities to check the figures. “People will have an
opportunity to comment on proposals in 2008, which is followed
by a thorough testing process.”
Greg Yates, who took Chichester Council to the High Court over
site provision, said the figures were ridiculous. “If they came up
with a figure of 53 they should stick with that, unless they bring
reasonable evidence to show why the new figure is correct.”
Lucy and Megan Lamb, from Cambridgeshire,
have picked up a BT award for helping to
make a difference to their community.
The Government has pledged to secure
the future for young Travellers like these.
councils to tackle anti-social behaviour
where “Gypsies and Travellers are either the
victims or perpetrators”;
regular meetings with Gyspy and Traveller
leaders on housing and planning;
better reporting on Gypsy and Traveller
issues to Parliament.
Sir Brian Briscoe chaired the Task Group.
“The challenge is to get sites on the ground to
meet the need for 4000 pitches, so that
NEWS BRIEFS
Gypsies and Travellers can have secure homes.
It is crucial that Government regularly monitors
progress, to ensure that there is no slackening
of the pace in securing better lives for the
children and young people of this small but
important ethnic minority.”
The report, The Road Ahead, is available at
www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/
Taskgroupreport or from the Department of
Communities and Local Government:
✆ 0207 944 4400
WHO’S THIS TASK GROUP? AND WHAT DO THEY WANT? Go to www.travellerstimes.org.uk
Worcestershire
Worcestershire claims the
fourth highest number of
Gypsies and Travellers in England
and yet 20% live on illegal sites.
Now a group has been set up to
campaign for change. The
Worcestershire Gypsy and Traveller
Support Group has published a
booklet, The Forgotten Minority –
Gypsies and Travellers highlighting
the issues confronting
Worcestershire Travelling people.
At the launch 17-year-old teaching
assistant Kathleen Jones told
delegates: “I’m a Gypsy and I’m
proud of it. But what our
community needs is more sites.”
The new Support Group is backed
by police, local councils, Travellers
and David Walker, the Bishop of
Dudley. Rooftop Housing
(70 High Street, Evesham,
Worcestershire, WR11 4YD
✆ 01386 420800) have copies
of the booklet.
The Council insisted the problem on the site
had been sorted out now. “We have had recent
COVER: Sharon
problems in respect of anti-social behaviour of
Kefford checks out
The East of England Regional Assembly has been first past the
a very limited number of site residents and
the best bags at
some criminal damage to Council property and
post in coming up with final figures for new pitches in England.
Selfridges
residents' trailers. The Council took legal action
They estimate 1190 new pitches will be needed by 2011. The
Read London’s Irish Conference
to remedy the situation and order has now been
See page 12
Report at www.travellerstimes.org.uk
TT 2
Government will finalise the figures for England next year.
NATIONAL& LOCALNEWS restored on the site,” said their spokesman.
NATIONAL& LOCALNEWS
Greg
Yates
u
Telling it how it is: teaching
assistant Kathleen Jones shows
the Bishop of Dudley, David Walker,
around the site where she lives.
Lincolnshire
q
PHOTO: Lyndsay Wilson
Lincolnshire’s Gypsy Liaison
Group (LGLG) has launched
a ‘floating support service’ run by
the Travelling community to tackle
issues like planning, health,
education, accommodation and
discrimination. The service will be
line-managed by the Derbyshire
Gypsy Liaison Group, the first time
that a Gypsy organisation has taken
on a supporting role in this way.
“Our thanks to all concerned,”
says LGLG’s Ryalla Duffy
✆ 07507 558359
Hull
q
Hull GATE (Gypsy and
Traveller Exchange) has a
new address: The Community
Enterprise Centre, Cottingham Road
(Old Grammar School), Hull, HU5
2DH, ✆ 01482 441002 (Ext
205) or elaine.sb@ourcomms.org
q
TT 3