Greens call for Traveller sanity

20 June 2007

Cllr Keith Taylor, Green Party Convenor has today called on new City Council Environment Chair Cllr Geoffrey Theobald (Con) for an urgent review of the way Gypsies and Travellers are catered for in the city.

In speaking of the letter (attached) Keith Taylor said;

“With the city’s only site for travellers closed down, the problem of unauthorised encampments is bound to be worse, and the council has done nothing to alleviate the effect of that closure. But even when Horsdean is operating we still don’t have enough sites.

No one wants to see parks and roads used as unofficial campsites, and by allowing the situation to continue in this way the council is falling down in its job”

“True, neighbouring councils need to be doing more, but Brighton & Hove has the biggest demand so really does need to take a lead in providing sites”

“Gypsies and Travellers are among the most socially excluded minorities in our country. With life expectancies up to 12 years less than the settled population, almost one in five Gypsy and Traveller mothers have experienced the death of a child, compared to less than 1% of the settled community. They deserve and are entitled to our help”

“Not only is fulfilling our statutory health and education services more difficult at unauthorized sites, it is much more expensive. We could slash the six figure sum it currently costs the council enforcing against unauthorized encampments by investing in more places for Travellers to stop. It’s worked in Bristol, where the council slashed its enforcement costs by £195,000 a year after investing £425,000.”

Notes to editors:

Notes

Letter to Cllr Theobald

Kings House, Hove
June 20, 2007

Dear Geoffrey

Thank you for sparing me the time to discuss the various issues facing the Council over the next months and years. Setting to one side the thorny question of parking and transport, which I’ll cover in a separate note, I’d like to concentrate on addressing the issue of the Travellers and Gypsies using the city.

There are several policy areas on which I think BHCC should be concentrating to deliver a fair deal for both the city’s settled and travelling community, and to improve the provision of efficient and cost effective council services.

At the root of local service delivery should be our Travellers Strategy. A cross-party group introduced the existing strategy in 1999, with a recommendation that it be reviewed in 2001.

Despite many requests to the previous Labour administration, that review never took place. I am hoping that a similar request I intend making to the next Environment Committee meeting on September 13th will meet a positive response.

I would see consideration of extra transit and short-stop sites as a fundamentally important part of our strategy review.

Moreover, reviewing our provision for Travellers makes sense in a number of ways;

1. Economic

Enforcing against unauthorized encampments costs the council a six-figure sum every year. If extra stopping places were provided, even at a cost to the authority, we could save on enforcement expenses.

For example Bristol City Council used to spend £200,000 each year on enforcing against unauthorized sites, they spent £425,000 providing a site and now enforcement costs have dropped to £5000 each year. Indeed since the original strategy was adopted, central government funding has been made available to help councils provide sites.

2. Promoting Social Inclusion

Gypsy and Travellers are among the most socially excluded minorities in our country. With life expectancies up to 12 years less than the settled population, one study has found that almost one in five Gypsy and Traveller mothers had experienced the death of a child, compared to less than 1% of the settled community.

Under the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda it is a child’s right to receive education. Yet Traveller children are one of the lowest-attaining groups of pupils in schools. A site for Travellers would enable children to attend schools on a more regular basis. Additionally, a postcode or address is needed to obtain a doctor, an authorized site would achieve this.

3. Meeting statutory obligations effectively

The absence of authorized sites makes it difficult and more expensive to provide statutory health and education services.

4. Ensuring the planning system and regulatory framework is accessible and understands the needs of the travelling community

We need to ensure robust accommodation needs assessments are conducted, to feed into the Local Development Framework and work alongside the Regional Assembly in ensuring adequate and appropriate sites are found.

As a council we must work closer alongside other local authorities, encouraging them to play a more active role in accommodating Travellers and Gypsies, and with other statutory agencies to improve service delivery.

I am glad we both agree that unauthorized use of parks and roadways brings the travelling and resident communities into conflict, and that, if more formal stopping places were available, there would be less pressure on sensitive sites where stopping is not allowed.

I hope you agree that my proposal for a cross party working group, to include co-optees from the travelling community and other support agencies represents a constructive way forward to improve the Authority’s performance in this area.

Yours sincerely
Councillor Keith Taylor
Convenor, Green Party Councillors

For more info contact Keith Taylor 07780 528990 or Geoffrey Bowden 07958 682683

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