Greens call for Traveller sanity

8 August 2007

Cllr Keith Taylor, Green Party Convenor is calling for a review of the way that Gipsies and Travellers are catered for in the city. His proposal to review the Travellers Strategy will be discussed at the Environment Committee on September 13.

In speaking of the proposal (attached) sent to Environment Chair Cllr Geoffrey Theobald Keith Taylor said:

"With the city’s only site for travellers closed down, the problem of unauthorised encampments is bound to be worse. But the council has done nothing to alleviate the effect of the 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 to allow the situation to continue in this way the council is falling down on 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.

"Gipsies 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 Gipsy and Traveller mothers had experienced the death of a child, compared to less than 1% of the settled community.

"Not only is trying to cope with unauthorized sites and fulfilling our statutory obligations of providing health and education services more difficult, 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 to stop. It’s worked in Bristol, where the council slashed its enforcement costs by £195,000 a year after investing £425,000”

ends

Notes to editors:

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

Notes

Proposal to Environment Committee September 13

Re Environment Committee September 13, 2007

Dear Alan McCarthy

Under Procedural Rule 19.3 I would like the proposals in this letter included for discussion at the abovementioned meeting.

Further to my discussions in June with Cllr Geoffrey Theobald I am now writing with proposals 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, with an intent 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 now formally requesting that such a cross party group be reconvened in the coming weeks to review and update our Travellers Strategy.

I would see consideration of extra site provision as a fundamentally important part of our strategy review.

Moreover, reviewing our services 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

Gipsy 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 Gipsy 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 Gipsies, 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

[ENDS]