Gypsy Roma Traveller Leeds
The permanent site of the Gypsy Roma Traveller Communities
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Persecuted
Racism and prejudice has never been too far from Traveller and Gypsy people and you can read about the history of persecution in our History Section.
News story
The siege of Dale Farm
Gypsies at Britain's largest encampment may soon be evicted
by Katharine Quarmby The Economist - April 2006
Mary-Ann McCarthy, the grand matriarch of the Dale Farm traveller encampment, worries that soon she will be on the road again. "I've travelled all my life, thinking of the bailiffs all the while, been moved on more times than I can remember," she says.
Dale Farm, the biggest encampment of Gypsies in Britain, with about 1,000 people, is under threat. Although they have bought the plots on which their caravans sit, only about 400 of the current residents received belated permission to settle on them. The other 600, who trickled in later, did not, and are now in breach of the Town and Planning Act.
The occupied pitches are spotless, with a smell of bleach lingering in the air. Containers of flowers sit by caravan doors. A large gate made of scaffolding poles bars entry to the site, however, and some pitches have barbed wire around their perimeters. Grattan Puxon, a member of the Gypsy Council, says residents feel besieged and it is easy to see why.
But so do some of their non-travelling neighbours. Basildon District Council, which is responsible for the Dale Farm site, voted last year to evict its illegal residents, at a cost of £1.9m. Malcolm Buckley, who leads the Conservative council, says that Basildon provides more pitches than most local authorities do, but the district is now full.
Yet Richie Sheridan, a spokesman for those at Dale Farm, says that many very old, very young and very sick people live at the site and have nowhere else to go.
The travellers are now awaiting judicial review of the council's decision to evict them, which could come as early as May. The Commission for Racial Equality is intervening in the proceedings to make sure the court takes into account the council's legal obligation to promote good race relations. A much publicised ruling by the House of Lords in March that another group of travellers was not entitled, under human rights law, to remain on land they had occupied illegally is reckoned too different in its particulars to affect the outcome of this review.
These cases are only two of many. In 1994 the government abolished the statutory requirement that local authorities provide sites for Gypsies, and the number of sites duly fell. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) estimates that only 74% of the 16,000 traveller caravans in Britain are on authorised sites. Some 13% of the rest are on sites like Dale Farm, where the travellers own the land but do not have planning permission to live on it, and the remaining 13% camp illegally on other people's property. The ODPM reckons that another 4,000 pitches are needed.
Last month, the ODPM told local authorities that they should provide sites, even though they were not strictly required in law to do so. Dale Farm residents, together with others representing travellers (of Irish origin) and Gypsies (of English Roma descent), met civil servants from the ODPM on 6th April to discuss the matter, two days before they celebrate International Roma Day. Mr Buckley has called in bailiffs that specialise in removing travellers. One such firm is Constant and Company. "I've got nothing against travellers, they are our stock in trade, but what is the contribution made by travellers to this country?" says Bryan LeCoche, who works for Constant." They don't pay income tax, they want everything for themselves without giving anything back."
Yet Nigel Smith, leader of the Basildon Labour group, speaks for many who oppose forcible eviction: "To deal with a human rights issue under planning law is crazy," he says. And the local priest, Father John Glynn, goes much further: "I'll be up there at the site if they evict the travellers. And my poster will say 'This is ethnic cleansing.' Time will tell how many rally to that banner.
Latest news
GRT News
See this page for some news stories from around the world relevant to Travellers.
If you have any stories or links to stories that you feel are worth sharing please feel welcome to contact us and let us know.
Also read about
Connors vs the UK
A judgement from the European Court of Human Rights on Travellers. Leeds Travellers, Jim and Esther Connors, in standing up for their rights have won a major case at the European Court of Human Rights, which will benefit all Travellers in the UK.
The Death of Johnny Delaney
Johnny, a fifteen year old Irish Traveller, was tragically killed in a racist attack in Ellesmere Port in 2003. His death was very similar to that of Stephen Lawrence and the Cheshire Police investigated the his death as a racially motivated crime.
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