Travellers tales

We have the notorious "Dale Farm Site"in Essex, a no-go area. Local citizens lives blighted daily, their properties are non-saleable.

We regularly have groups squating in parks, car parks and once along a beautiful stretch of grassland by the beach.

There maybe some travellers who act more civilised and intergrate with communities, but that is not our experience in S E Essex.

It strikes me Luckygirl that those travellers who engage with various agencies and organisations would be those who would abide by the rules, therefore it is unlikely you would have come into contact with many of those who choose to live by their own rules and to hell with anyone else

Luckygirl I take your point that not all travellers act in this way but many GNs will have seen at first hand the actions of the "few".

I live in the west country and every year we have the same problem with travellers just turning up, not using the sites which are available because they have to pay, parking on private and public land, intimidating passers by. They destroy property and leave mounds of rubbish which the local council have to clear up. It is difficult to respect their lifestyle when they do not respect ours.

Here in Merseyside there's a traveller charity group formed encouraging the local people to give travellers a chance to be part of the communities.
Liverpool has strong Irish connections, a Labour run council-----have I said enough ?

I think "EllanVannin* that you have just illustrated my point very clearly - your information has been gleaned from news bulletins and TV programmes, which seek eye-catching stories that do not reflect the majority of the community.

And yes - I know many Travellers who do of course pay their taxes: they are teachers, academics, sports people, council workers - just like the rest of us.

I am sure there are Travellers who do not pay taxes - but then neither does amazon!

I know of a Traveller who was driving a van full of antiques and was stopped by the police and accused of theft - the man involved gave the police his name and the number of a very famous London auction house and suggested the police ring them. They did, and were told that he was one of their most trusted colleagues and customers.

The government has a planning policy for traveller sites. There are many dotted around this country.
So there you are.

Gabriella, these are the people that HMRC leave alone ! One reason is that they're on the move so much they can't keep up with them-----clever or what ??

They are very wealthy individuals with caravans like stately homes which have to be towed by 4x4's as no other vehicle would manage.

It's a " get rich quick " tactic ( koff ) and they do, then beetle off somewhere else.
Look at the funerals they have ! To say nothing of the weddings with the full palava of coaches, horses etc.
A shop in Liverpool makes all the regalia for these " do's ".

Police have tried, but the discrimination card is played. as unless a crime has been proven, nothing can be done. It's down to land-owners and my bet is that certain councils are given a backhander. Farmers too have been known to be in on the cash.

I think that some travellers have come from other countries where, for obvious reasons, they have been less than welcome.

I take your point, Luckygirl, that not all are bad and as GG54 describes, I have only encountered four groups of travellers over the years making use of unoccupied ground, car parks, waste ground next to the DS' s schools etc - but all have behaved in the way that Gabriella describes, to the distress of neighbours, school children, local businesses.

We do not hear about the families who live peacefully on proper sites.

"These people" are as diverse as any other group in society.

I worked for many years with Travellers and was happy to count many as friends. The decent Travellers despair as much as anyone else over the minority of Travellers that get themselves into the headlines for appalling behaviour. They are no better or worse on average than other UK citizens - they are just a visible minority who, when they misbehave or commit crime, find themselves all tarred with the same brush.

How would those of us with decent teenage grandsons feel if they were assumed to be young thugs, just because some are?

Travellers have a very strong sense of family loyalty and there is a huge Christian movement within the community that would not dream of behaving in such an ant-social way.

It is easy to criticise from the outside (remember how Jews were all Shylocks?) without actually knowing anything about them at all.

Clearly this behaviour from a minority of Travellers is entirely unacceptable; but it is simplistic and indeed fundamentally wrong, to assume that this behaviour applies to the whole community. Try this link: www.travellerstimes.org.uk/ I used to be picture editor on this magazine and worked alongside many Travellers.

Travellers took over a supermarket car park near me, they tapped into their electricity, terrorised customers and staff and caused mayhem. The children were demanding the coins from the trolleys. They eventually left without all their rubbish.
It got me thinking that there were plenty of areas, common land etc where they could have pitched. Then the penny dropped! They blackmail the supermarkets, brewery’s etc to vacate the land.
The Police do nothing and local councils take so long to act it’s a joke.
These people are simply criminals.

I'd like to know what paid work they do and if they pay appropriate taxes.
If they can buy land for cash and drive new looking 4×4s plus Gucci shoes and expensive clothing, their income must come from somewhere so I wonder why don't HMRC investigate?

We had a success locally this week machinery was stolen from a farm and luckily the police helicopter was close by and it picked up the vehicle used by the thieves and tracked it to the local travelers camp.

The Riot Squad was called, broke in and recovered the stolen property, it’s not exactly a “no go area” but you do need about 10 armored coppers willing to fight their way in. Of course nobody was arrested because everyone had a solid alibi!.

I can understand and also sympathise with this horrendous situation but " free speech " or not, we're not allowed to add our true thoughts on the subject so it goes on unchallenged.

There are those who will continue to say----" well they've got to go somewhere "! As long as it isn't in their back yards,eh ??

Strange how " free speech is selective ! Strange, that.

Must admit that at first I thought the OP was another dig at the Daily Mail, or Fail as many like to call it. Reading it through I realise that you have a similar take on the subject as I do. I live in a place where there is a permanent camp fairly close. Just over the county border which gives the police the option of leaving the other force to sort out the frequent trouble and anti social goings on. Cannot say any more, seems to be against their human rights.