The Westmoreland Gazette 11/04/2012
A WEBSITE offering comprehensive information on the Appleby Horse Fair has been revamped ahead of this year’s event.
Organisations including Eden and South Lakeland district councils, Cumbria Police, the RSPCA and representatives from the Gypsy and Traveller communities have, for the fifth year running, formed a working group to ensure the fair runs smoothly.
And they hope changes to the event’s official website will keep the 10,000 travellers and 30,000 other visitors updated on stopping points, camp sites, road closures, transport, pubs which are open, animal welfare and activities.
The Advertiser, Darlington, Aycliffe and Sedgefield 11/04/2012
A COUNCIL has defended its consultation process over possible new Gypsy and travellers sites around Darlington amid concerns about whether residents have been properly informed.
Darlington Borough Council said it has carried out an ‘extensive’ consultation with residents about six potential locations for new or extended traveller sites in the borough, including writing letters to households next to or near possible sites.
But some candidates contesting the Harrowgate Hill by-election said they have spoken to a number of residents in the ward who were in the dark about the plans and many who were unclear about how to make their views known to the council.
Crewe Chronicle 11/04/2012
CONTROVERSIAL plans to set up a Gypsy site on Parkers Road look likely to be scrapped.
The move follows changes in the Government’s planning policy which gives local authorities greater scope to carry out their own assessments of the housing needs of Gypsies and Travellers.
Cllr Michael Jones, Conservative group leader on Cheshire East Council, said: “The Conservative group has voted to put forward a motion to withdraw the application for the Parkers Road site at the next council meeting on April 19. It was a unanimous vote led by Cllr Derek Bebbington.”
The Sun 11/04/2012
A THOUSAND British and Irish travellers turn a French retail park into an Easter holiday camp — then leave heaps of rubbish.
Around 200 caravans invaded the central city of Clermont-Ferrand. A traveller called Tom, from Scotland, said: “We’re here to celebrate a friend’s wedding.”
The Advertiser 10/04/2012
A COUNCIL’S standards watchdog has found councillors were given incomplete information when considering the allocation of gypsy caravan sites.
Great and Little Broughton Parish Council submitted a complaint to Hambleton District Council’s standards committee over its interpretation of how many gypsy caravan sites were needed in the area.
Chairman of the parish council, Councillor David Ashton, claims chief planning officer Maurice Cann misinterpreted the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) when he told councillors the independent report showed there was a shortage of 14 pitches in the district.
This is Gloucestershire 10/04/2012
TREKKING the roads and byways of England, Craig Solar is not your typical gypsy or traveller.
With his old-fashioned horse-drawn wagon, the 34-year-old sees himself closer to eco-warriors, such as Swampy, than the stars of programmes like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
Wharfdale Observer 10/04/2012
Gypsy and traveller sites are being planned in Leeds under a cloak of secrecy, it is being claimed.
Guiseley and Rawdon councillor Graham Latty is accusing the controlling Labour Group on Leeds City Council of refusing to name the potential sites that are being considered around the area.
Coun Latty and fellow Conservatives say there has been no public consultation on the issue and they are calling for open and transparent debate.
The council has stressed that any possible sites will be brought before the Executive Board and that local communities will be consulted before any planning applications are made.
Hemel Today 09/04/2012
PLANS to build the equivalent of around four extra traveller sites in Dacorum have been dumped.
Under a previous housing blueprint the borough was expected to provide 59 new gypsy and traveller pitches by 2031.
A planning report went as far as identifying a number of suitable locations – Featherbed Lane and Holtsmere End Lane in Hemel Hempstead, Swing Gate Lane in Berkhamsted, Icknield Way in Tring and Bovingdon Airfield – that provoked an angry backlash.
But the coalition government has redrafted planning rules and Dacorum Borough Council has abandoned the allocation.
Currently there are two official traveller sites in the borough – 30 pitches in Three Cherry Trees Lane, Hemel Hempstead, and six at Long Marston, both run by Herts County Council.
Derry Journal 08/04/2012
Forty years ago, two Californian anthropologists, George and Sharon Gmelch, moved into a barrel top wagon in a traveller encampment in Rathfarnham in Dublin.
They spent thirteen months living and travelling with three extended traveller families. They returned to the States with material for a number of books and over 3,000 photographs.
They returned to a different Ireland and a different travelling community earlier this year to make a documentary. The resulting footage was aired on Monday night on RTE 1. Unsettled – from Tinker to Traveller – is one of the best portrayals I’ve seen to date on the life and culture Irish travellers.
This is Leicestershire 07/04/2012
Attempts to create new legal traveller sites have proved controversial, but David Maclean says the city mayor deserves credit for grabbing this political hot potato
It’s the city council’s big fat gypsy problem – where do you put scores of travellers without upsetting the local community? Last month the authority came up with three preferred sites – all in Beaumont Leys.