alanmacc

Ok firslty let me say no offence ....................

But

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-15057483

the first 8 words say it all .......... its illegal, but we cant infringe on their rights can we noooo that would be wrong

BEVS

'Nother linky.

I've recently been asked about UK and Irish travellers following that programme , 'Big Fat Gypsy Wedding'. I'd not seen the programme but what I could say , from experience, is that travellers just fetch up and plonk themselves down wherever they fancy. In summer for Bournemouth , that was our local rugby pitch where husband used to play. They'd also set up in a local car park near the football stadium . They'd hook up if they could to someone else's electricity supply. Stuff went walkies and the filth they left, including human excrament, was terrible.

Another expat,who was also in our Friday morning group , is from a farming family up Grantham way. Once a year a large group of 'travellers' would fetch up and again set themselves up wherever they liked. For this one , they would actually close an 'A' road so they could hold their horse races. Again, the tale was the same as mine. Items going missing & total filth left.

This hinges on them having a 'right to housing' . Just the same thing that my husband and I came up against when a tenant in our cottage refused to leave when the tenancy was up.

We spent a year in a caravan park and then in a friend's spare room before she left. We were banned from the street unless it was for husband to do maintenance work.
We went through all the right channels and got precisely nowhere. During this time we paid our mortgage, keep to our friend and in turn rent for the caravan In the end we got the local MP involved. She got served the notice and council found her a place that she accepted. She had turned down several places before that.

She then did a flit before the day was up. We only knew because one of our neighbours drove up to the caravan site to let us know. She'd left the doors and windows open . The inside was trashed and there was piles of rubbish back and front.

I was seething so I hired a PI to find her which he did. We fetched up in the dead of night with all her poxy rubbish and dumped it in her doorway on the pavement.

I then served her a writ for damages, our costs throughout the year and emotional upset.

Thankfully, the district judge was happy to award in our favour

Justcol

Thieving pikeys the lot of em
But what do i care.....I live in NZ and caravans wont float this far.

Expat Kiwi

I don't know the story but is this that group of gypsies who actually own the land they're illegally living on, or is this another group?

Are you saying they have no rights because they are nomadic, or because they don't have planning consent?

If a group of people displaced/uninsured people from Christchurch decided to pitch their tents and caravans in a field next to your home would they also have no rights?

Catchafire

My wife is a gypsy, she left Finland to escape this type of prejudicial crap. Are you the type of person that calls black people niggers? I reckon so.

barnsleymat

From my experience with Gypsies n Travellers I've got absolutely no sympathy with em.

It must have been hell living near this illegal camp.

I know when they've used land near where I lived they made it very hard for local residents. Crime figures rise, they leave a trail of destruction and they're not a nice bunch to deal with.

And before the racist tagging brigade come along branding me a nazi, I was heavily involved in Love Music Hate Racism for a fair few years in the UK.

j19fmm

They own the land yes but only have permission for buildings on part of the land. And like all of us, one must have planning permission or it is illegal. Odd that they are 'travellers' but want a permanent site to live all year round.
The main problem has come from activists joining in the fight, many from outside UK and no link with the (mainly Irish) travellers.

Stormer999

These people are not Romany or Gypsy they are Irish travellers thrown out by the Irish government because of their bad ways. Not once has a male dare show his face to the media for obvious reasons only the females. The law has taken due course, that is the law we live by.......ALL of us......

barnsleymat

You're right about the males not showing their faces, makes me chuckle when the men have their faces blurred on the Gypsy Wedding show making a work related excuse. They should rename the show 'My Big Fat Crimewatch Wedding'.

alanmacc

firstly they are not nomadic, you use that word in an almost idyllic sense and almost romantisise them. They do not own the land, they don't pay taxes, they dont vote they rob fight and steal ....... they forfeited their rights, much in the way i believe people who are in prison do, this is a lifestyle choice but they try to live outwith the law then claim discrimination when the law tries to pull them into line.

and your comment

"My wife is a gypsy, she left Finland to escape this type of prejudicial crap. Are you the type of person that calls black people niggers? I reckon so."

really do you want to go down this road, what does skin colour have to do with it, you are the one who brought up that word, so i think you need to have a closer look at yourself

Expat Kiwi

Not I, it was Catchafire.

Alan your thoughts about rights and who doesn't deserve to have them sounds very familiar, I thought that sort of thing died out in the mid 1940s.

Expat Kiwi

Thanks, I suppose they just want to do what most of us want to do - put down roots and bring up our families.

Yes, I can see how the activists would use this to their own ends and I also know how travellers get lumped together with gypsies. I'm just about old enough to remember the 'travellers' that used to occupy places like Stonehenge and the Greenham Common Peace camps.

Rolfie

I live about 2 miles from where these 'Travellers' are camped, and I can asure you they have ruined the area in almost all aspects. I blame the law as much, if not more than the Travellers, as it is their failure to act, and impose the laws that apply to non-Travellers, that has allowed them to carry on breaking the law.
If I were to do so much as put up a fence that was a foot higher than allowed, I'd be ordered by the Council to take it down, and would be fined if I refused.
The Travellers have been getting away with this for 10 years on this site, and the Police and courts haven't had the guts to deal with them.
We've even had one of our old pubs closed, as the Pikeys kept going there and fighting once they had had a few beers, and my local Chinese take-away said they frequently have them order food, then say they'll pay a fraction of the bill as they are short of cash.
As they call themselves 'Traveller's, why don't they bloody 'Travel' !!
Rant over. . . .

BEVS

Hi Catchafire.
The two experiences that I related are about those that call themselves 'travellers'. The one about those that came to Bournemouth & the rugby field were not Romany or Gypsy. There is a difference & I did explain this to those that asked me about . I do hope I haven't offended at all.

edit here....
the story about the tenant was to illustrate the madness of the law in these things. The tenant had always known when it was time to leave but did not. She was protected far more than we were and yet, we were the ones that were homeless.

Moliknickers

We own a house in a village in Wiltshire. 7 years ago over an August bank holiday 16 families of Irish Travellers moved onto a field of agricultural land (they had bought of a farmer through a third party I might add!) on the out skirts of the village (beyond the planning line.)They spent the weekend putting down hard core and tarmac putting in cess pits with diggers etc. Before the council had gone back to work on the tuesday they were in. A number of children were enrolled at the village school and the Mercedes and Range Rovers were a magnificent sight to be seen parked up against the trailers and the newly constructed "day rooms" Thousands of pounds of tax payers money was used to hold meetings about meetings with the council, the planning office and the locals. The human rights band and the do gooders and nimbys (not in my back yard) all jumped on the wagon (pardon the pun!) Many laws were broken from planning to fly tipping, obstruction blah blah etc etc. Once the press interest died down the children were taken OUT of school (taught on the site by a council tax funded "traveller teacher") more sites were built to accommodate visiting relatives and other travellers.It basically dragged on and on.Went to all sorts of court hearings etc! The council passed the buck back and forth ...eventually central government got involved. Wiltshire council were told to find the "travelling community" who clearly no longer wanted to travel an alternative site.The "travellers" stated they didn't want to live in towns, a nice field in a rural village would suffice! (Much to the detriment of the rest of us watching our property values slump) ....Again more money was spent at looking at alternative sites, clearly no one else wanted them in their back yard either! !The alternative sites offered weren't deemed "acceptable"to the community. One option was to extend an already established site in Wiltshire, they didn't want to mix with other travellers though!Or live nearer to the M4!! (Kirsty and Phil would have had their work cut out!) On and on the merry go round went for 7 years! In the end Prescott's office got involved. The outcome...the "Minety" travellers were allowed to stay as Wiltshire council had failed to find them an alternative site!
The site is still there, on a dangerous bend, outside the planning line (for the rest of us!) No planning permission, no drainage, backed onto someone else's home! concrete all over a brown belt field, horses tethered on other peoples land etc etc. Two of the children I believe still attend the school, (so all good there out of 16 large families.) One of the "travellers" was asked at a council meeting by a local why did they not buy some land within the planning line and then apply for permission to build like everyone else? Her reply was that they couldn't afford that sort of money!! Having seen first hand how these "travellers" flout every law in the book to get exactly what they want disregarding any one else in the communities they move into and the misery and division it can bring, I have little or no sympathy for any of them. The only positive outcome for allowing them to stay as well as the "Dale Farm" "travellers" is at least they are not disbanded and moved on to be someone else's misery! Google "Minety Travellers" makes informative reading along with some delightful pictures of the site!!