Travellers

Welcome back jangly hope you enjoyed your holiday.

What's that supposed to mean harrigran?

Perfectly good post, I would say.

So much misinformation here. Have people been swallowing the Daily Mail whole? e.g. 'No one has the right to encamp on private property ...let alone build on it ...the council should be held accountable for that ...turning a blind eye is no solution. The council should have acted immediately ...not just 'hope' that they would move on.

I understand that the 'travellers' actually own the land but were refused planning permission to build homes on it.

Curious ...were the children allowed to enrol in the local schools?'
Not only allowed but in fact required. Travellers children MUST attend school, or be properly home educated, under the same rules as apply to all children. Hence why travellers need permanent or semi permanent places to stay. Many families have a large caravan which mainly stays on site with school age children/mums/grannies and a smaller tourer which travels to wherever the others are working/visiting/touring. We have a council run site nearby and the children from there attend the local primary school where my DGS goes. They wear the school uniform and the only way you can identify them as travellers is if you see them walking the mile from the school to the Travellers site.

'have very strong irish acsents (sic) so why are they not 'traveling' in Ireland'

There are five native nationalities in the British Isles. Four - Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish are geographically/politically based but the fifth counts the whole of the British Isles as their homeland and feel free, indeed sometimes it is a compulsion, to move from corner to corner, north to south, to Ireland and back. Their accent may sound Irish to the English but does not sound Irish to the Irish IYKWIM!

I am a little to see some of the views here on Gransnet. I am sure that people would be much more circumspect if commenting on any other minority.

Yes they should be subject to planning regulations, all the rest of us have to jump through hoops to get what we want. It has taken me 15 months to get the permission for my extension and it has to be done by the book, every time the building inspector comes to check a stage of work he has to be paid, by us. I don't see why one group of people should do as they wish and get away with it.

I couldnt care less who the 'Travellers' are or where they come from but there are planning laws in this country and if anybody ignores them, whether from a special 'community' or just an ordinary resident, they should all be subject to the same penalties.

Every year there are cases in the paper where non-traveller chancers have either got planning permission for one building and built something three times as large or have built a house without planning permission and attempted to 'hide' the house from the planners for four years to get round the law that way. In all but the most exceptional cases those houses have been demolished, in many cases by the local council itself. These people built homes without getting planning permission, why should they be treated any differently than anybody else.

The problem here is they floated the Planning Laws, even though they had bought the land, they didn't have planning permission to build on it. I gather, the local Council, as now directed by the UN, now has to find them other places to stay? I think I am correct in saying this. In various interviews and a tv programme, it is only the women who show their faces, the men do not wish to be seen

Hi everyone I so agree with you all - how can you be a travellor when you dont go anyware ! ! the 'travelors' who seem to be most vocal all seem to have very strong irish acsents so why are thay not 'traveling' in Ireland. and why do they think the laws of the land don't apply to them !

Yes Yes Yes I agree entirely with Jacey,greenmossgiel,susiecb and riclorian !!!
What will happen now that 'rent a rabble' have moved in and set up 'Camp Constant' I dread to think. How do these 'travellers' finance their lavish caravans full of sparkly tat, satellite tvs and brand new vehicles. Do they pay council tax, nat.ins. etc. do they qualify for NHS treatment.I know that they own part of the land but it should not be built on without planning permission. The council concerned have been turning a blind eye for years and hoping it would all go away. WRONG.
Everybody has a right to live as they choose, but within the boundaries of the law of the land. Come on Vanessa Redgrave show how much you are on the 'travellers' side and let them move into your garden!!
Time for a

Yes ...I believe that all ethnic groups should have the ability to live their lives according to their particular set of beliefs ...but ...with that goes their respect for other people's way of life.

Yes ...fixed 'temporary' sites ...where they can stay for short periods ... before continuing on their 'travels' ...but ...they need to leave these sites clean and tidy.

No one has the right to encamp on private property ...let alone build on it ...the council should be held accountable for that ...turning a blind eye is no solution. The council should have acted immediately ...not just 'hope' that they would move on. Curious ...were the children allowed to enrol in the local schools?

I think we might be back to the Human Rights Act ...where are the responsibilities?

Hmm, perhaps she could, susiecb!.....they could leave their faeces and other stuff they no longer want to keep for themselves in the middle of her garden, like some 'travellers' do in the middle of open grassy areas local to where we live. Our own council seem to bow to their every wish, doing nothing but pay lip service with regards to deterring them (boulders in roadways etc, which the travellers move easily with their own vehicles).

How can you be a traveller and insist on a permanent site isnt that a contradiction in terms? And what has it got to do with Vanessa Redgrave perhaps she could have them in her back garden in Hampstead!