ITMB Media Monitor

The ITMB Media Monitor is designed to record stories and articles concerning the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in the British print media. It aims to keep you up to date with both the positive and negative stories at both the local and national level. The monitor can be used as a resource for all interested parties and organisations for research, press and media complaints and general interest purposes.

While the ITMB Monitor team strive to record all coverage of Travellers in the print media, we acknowledge that some stories will slip through our net. To help us keep a more detailed record feel free to send us any stories you feel are of interest and which we may have missed.

Bedford Today 13/04/2012

A FURTHER 135 gypsy and traveller pitches are set to be allocated by Central Beds Council by 2031.

The Gypsy and Traveller Plan was discussed by councillors at the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday morning.

No decisions were made on which sites will be put forward, and there is set to be a public consultation later this year to find the further sites needed to accommodate the Gypsy and Traveller community.

The Inverness Courier 12/04/2012

OPPOSITION is mounting to the development of five short-stay gypsy traveller sites in the Inverness area — two are at Dalcross airport and another on a popular tourist route.

The Inverness Courier has learnt that local people are preparing to lodge a series of official objections to the plans, which are currently out for consultation.

The sites being considered are at Torvean Quarry off the A82, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Stratton Point off the A96 between Seafield and Milton, Inverness Airport and Balnafroig, south of Daviot off the B9154 between Craggie and Moy.

Most are already used by travellers unofficially but if given the go ahead the areas will be turned into designated temporary stopping places.

However, the local authority could not say yesterday how long travellers will be able to stay at the camps, fuelling fears sites could be used on a long-term basis.

This is Gloucestershire 12/04/2012

TRAVELLERS in Newent have been denied planning permission to develop a caravan site in the latest episode of a long-running row.

The group, which owns the land off Southend Lane, was unanimously denied the go-ahead for a 13-pitch caravan site, permanent day rooms, hard-standings, an access road, fencing and drainage systems by Forest of Dean councillors on Tuesday.

It’s the latest twist in a row that began in May 2009, when the travellers moved on to the land over the Whitsun Bank Holiday.

Newent mayor Len Lawton, also a district councillor for the area, said another appeal was now likely to follow

Bedford Today 12/04/2012

 A SIGN opposing the planned Bromham travellers pitches was removed by police on Tuesday over warnings that it could constitute a hate crime.

The offensive sign was reported by members of the public close to the Bromham Road bridge and a passing police officer removed it the same day.

Susan Throssel Hunt, who was outraged by the sign, the content of which is unprintable, said: “I was very shocked that someone would do that and I didn’t want my children to see that and think that it’s ok to say things like that about people.”

Crewe, Nantwich & Sandbach Guardian 12/04/2012

CAMPAIGNERS in Crewe are celebrating after controversial plans for a gipsy and traveller site look set to be thrown out.

Conservatives on Cheshire East Council have voted to put forward a motion to withdraw the application for the Parkers Road site at the next council meeting on April 19.

The action follows changes in the Government’s planning policy which gives greater scope for local authorities to carry out their own assessments of the housing needs of gypsies and travellers and plan accordingly.

BBC News England 12/04/2012

As the travelling fair season begins, fairground workers from all over Britain are heading out on to the road. But while their presence is familiar, what do we really know about the people who work the fairs?

From the heated evictions at the Dale Farm traveller site in Essex to the new series of Channel 4′s controversial My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Britain’s travellers have been hitting the headlines.

But the travelling community has a third distinct subsection of which little is reported – showmen or fairground people.

Unlike Irish Travellers and Gypsies, showmen do not view themselves as an ethnic group but a cultural one united by the fairground industry.

News.Scotsman.com 12/04/2012

I WAS honoured to chair the launch of two reports by Amnesty International on Scottish gypsy travellers looking at local service provision and media coverage of gypsy travellers throughout Scotland.

Sadly, the reports show that despite positive steps there is still widespread discrimination. Unfortunately, this is exacerbated by coverage in the press and by politicians who are quick to condemn a minority group.

Half of the newspaper articles on gypsy travellers can be classified as overtly negative due to the prevalence of stereotypes throughout; 38 per cent of all articles linked gypsy travellers and criminality, 32 per cent referencing dirt and hygiene.

While one cannot say if this leads directly to the negative image of gypsy travellers, I am sure that it does contribute. About 92 per cent of young gypsy travellers will have experienced bullying at some point in their life, and while shows such as Big Fat Gypsy Weddings hide behind the perception of being informative about gypsy traveller values, they help only to reinforce these misconceptions.

Spalding Guardian 11/04/2012

COUNCIL bosses hoping to create a temporary stopping place for gypsies and travellers in Sutton Bridge are being forced to renew their planning permission.

South Holland District Council has allowed the three-year permission for the land off Centenary Way to almost elapse, with little chance of any work commencing in the coming months.

Permission was given in June 2009 but a Compulsory Purchase Order to buy the land was not approved until after a public inquiry held in Long Sutton in 2010.

The current planning permission will expire on June 22.

The authority says it still intends to press ahead with its plans for the ten-pitch caravan site.

Mail OnLine 11/04/2012

They came, they partied, and then they were gone… leaving in their wake a wasteland of rubbish and unwanted leftovers.
This was the aftermath of a gypsy wedding after a thousand travellers from Britain and Ireland descended on a French holiday camp over the Easter weekend.

It had all the frills you might expect of a traveller wedding: big caravans, big hair dos, big cars, big dresses (and some very little ones to boot).

Driffield Times and Post 11/04/2012

A GYPSY has vowed to fight plans to evict him from his own plot of land in a Wolds village declaring that he does not want to cause any trouble.

And Irish traveller Anthony Quinn has strenuously denied allegations made by several villagers in Nafferton that he is using dykes near his site on Back Carr Lane to dispose of toilet waste.

He told the Driffield Times & Post he would even be willing to take a DNA test to prove any such waste found in the waterways was not his.

He has also rubbished claims that a generator he is running at the site is causing a noise disturbance, alleging that he is using a ‘super silent’ generator.