Council fulfils duty to gipsies (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Council fulfils duty to gipsies

WYCHAVON district is home to five public gipsy sites and another 50 private ones, providing almost 300 pitches, according to figures released this week.

The district is one of just a handful across England and Wales to have gained recognition under the 1994 Caravans Act, having fulfilled its duty to provide sites.

The figures were released by Cllr Adrian Hardman, leader of the council's Gipsies and Travellers Scrutiny Team, in response to the recent report by the Commission for Racial Equality which was critical of many local authorities.

It claimed that "many authorities have not considered the possibility that tensions over unauthorised encampments and developments may be connected to their failure to provide and manage sites".

Cllr Hardman agreed with the Commission. "I think that some other authorities are happy to let the situation continue," he said.

"This is not the case in Wychavon where we are making efforts to talk to the gipsy community, and lobbying government to take action since there is a shortage of sites nationally.

"Wychavon has been found by government inspectors to make enough provision of gipsies, but I feel we cannot soak up others' failures to address their problems."

The CRE report revealed that more than two thirds of local authorities said they had to deal with tensions between gipsies and Irish travellers and other members of the public.

But Cllr Hardman responded: "There is no doubt that new illegal sites, when first set up in Wychavon, cause concern and tension with the settled residents but general relations between local gipsies on established sites and the rest of the population are fair due to the fact they are our largest ethnic group and most residents have long association with the gipsy community. "We have very few Irish travellers in Wychavon."

He added that there was no recommended level of pitches to be met by local authorities although he said it was possible the government would set regional and sub regional targets two or three years down the line.

Cllr Hardman said that in the case of illegal encampments "we do have a protocol of understanding with other public bodies such as the police and social services to try to reach agreement with gipsies on illegal sites, but we look at every case on its own and decide a plan of action."