Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Travellers... where are they supposed to go?

55 replies

40somethingJBJ · 17/04/2020 16:23

A post on my local “Spotted” group about travellers having pulled up on a car park nearby got me thinking. A good chunk of the comments were saying the police needed calling to get them moved, and then a couple were saying they needed reporting for moving around, and “if we’ve got to stay put, so should they”.

But where exactly are they supposed to stay put? The whole thing about being a traveller is that they travel. Nobody wants them parked up near by, yet the same people want them to get in trouble for moving around. Seems a bit of a no-win situation really!

Anyway, I’m not trying to cause any arguments about rights or wrongs, I’m giving no opinions whatsoever on this group of people, I’m just musing and wondering where exactly they are supposed to go at a time like this?

OP posts:
WhoWants2Know · 17/04/2020 18:20

I would agree that the government needs to step up now and provide safe places for travellers to stop during lockdown and practice safe social distancing like everyone else. And that includes arranging for proper rubbish collection, etc.

MNHQ
ClaraMumsnet · 17/04/2020 18:27

Hi all,

We're just posting to say that we've had some reports about the tone and direction of this thread and we'd like to enlist your help to keep things on track.

This type of discussion can attract subtle and not so subtle racist and xenophobic comments. If you see anything which breaks the talk guidelines, please do report and we'll take action. If posters continue to break the Talk Guidelines then we will have to remove the thread and may take action against the posters.

handbagsatdawn33 · 17/04/2020 18:27

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

1981m · 17/04/2020 18:30

The travellers in our area have had a Special site allocated for them and have been asked to go there. They have refused. So they do have somewhere to go.

justdontatme · 17/04/2020 18:32

FreezerBird my relative is a festival worker/van dweller too. Lots of the community are in a really difficult position financially now with the summer season looking highly doubtful. My relative is staying at an intentional community they have friends with, and planning to fruit pick.

Original poster
40somethingJBJ · 17/04/2020 18:35

handbagsatdawn33 and where exactly would that be? I didn’t start this thread to be inflammatory (far from it as my grandma was Romany), more out of a concerned musing really.

OP posts:
Original poster
40somethingJBJ · 17/04/2020 18:37

Waxonwaxoff0 and Spottyspottyladybird if it’s a car park with a leisure centre on it in the Midlands then we’re probably all local!

OP posts:
SarahInAccounts · 17/04/2020 18:39

There is plenty of room on a couple of official sites here but they would have to pay. So they prefer to trespass and leave their mess everywhere, including human shit, for others to clear up.

So I can't feel sorry for them - they have somewhere to be, they just don't want to pay.

Destroyer · 17/04/2020 18:39

I see the dispatches travellers thread has gone. I bet this thread goes soon.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 17/04/2020 18:46

I don't know if this is actually happening on the ground but I think councils are supposed to either:
1.Leave them be and encourage them not to move because thats the safest option.

  1. If 1. Is not possible, make some suitable piece of council owned ground available to them.
  2. If all else fails, there is a suggestion that commercial campsites be requisitioned for the pupose and emergency legislation used to force such businesses to stay open.
Thighmageddon · 17/04/2020 18:46

if it’s a car park with a leisure centre on it in the Midlands then we’re probably all local!

Given the current crisis then I think it would be uncharitable to not let them stay there. Just because they're travellers doesn't mean they don't have the same worries and fears that house dwellers have.

I imagining they're having similar money worries as everyone else. I don't think being a traveller makes them immune to CV.

Anneofgreengables1 · 17/04/2020 18:53

I'm not a very good writer so sorry for that
They wont grant planning permission
They wont build sites
They say there is room on the legal sites but the council lie

If you only know the truth

You watch tv and think you know
Yes I agree with some leaving human mess
That's disgusting

As for going back to were we come from
My family goes back generations in england

They would dare talk about other races
The way they talk about us

Destroyer · 17/04/2020 19:03

^no, but we should be allowed to express concern over the level of education within the community (especially that of girls) for example.

FriedasCarLoad · 17/04/2020 19:11

The government could make spaces available for those travellers not on an official site in land that's unused at the moment due to the virus - e.g. football and cricket pitches.

In my county, travellers have set up on several cricket pitches in the last several years. The pitches have been left severely damaged. And that’s not even taking into account all the quickly (but expensively) fixed problems like litter.

TheQueef · 17/04/2020 19:34

Temporary six months relaxation of some rules and access to closed off areas wouldn't be so hard.
Worse case scenario damage can be repaired.

Anneofgreengables1 · 17/04/2020 19:35

What about the level of education for Muslim girls who get took out of schools and sold to men 3 times there age nobody wont talk about that because its racial

How many threads have I read on here about children refusing to go to school
What's done about them

How can they go to school when half of them have no address and when they do go they are bullied by children who hear the racial abuse they parents say and teachers who just put them in a corner with a few learning sheets
That was my childhood in school but my children go to school

Thighmageddon · 17/04/2020 19:39

Worse case scenario damage can be repaired.

I find it astounding that people can't understand this. I don't particularly care about what my local country park looks like in 6 months, it will recover. I do care about human life however, you can't recover an actual dead person.

Mrsappleby · 17/04/2020 19:41

if it’s a car park with a leisure centre on it in the Midlands then we’re probably all local!
Local to me too!

Pelleas · 17/04/2020 19:42

Well said, Thigh.

thunderthighsohwoe · 17/04/2020 19:45

Can’t they use empty football pitches? I’d much rather be neighbours with a traveller site than a football stadium!

And I say that as someone who has taught traveller children, and they’ve all been polite, community minded and well cared.

Sennetti · 17/04/2020 20:42

I said car park as I thought the caravans would be more stable in concrete

WhoWants2Know · 17/04/2020 23:29

Ideally even a temporary site will need to be more than just a car park for hygiene reasons.

LastTrainEast · 17/04/2020 23:42

They need to live on property/land that they own just like everyone else. There is no special right to take someone else's land.

LastTrainEast · 17/04/2020 23:46

and to be clear they don't have to travel all the time. They can stay on one spot that they rent/own for the time being.

LastTrainEast · 17/04/2020 23:49

"There aren’t enough legal sites to accommodate all the travelling community though I don’t think." well they should have planned ahead then

Swipe left for the next trending thread