to think that evicting hundreds of travellers from their site is unfair and immoral

[rocketty]

It's an illegal site. They didn't have planning permission. It's greenbelt...

but it used to be a car scrapyard (not rolling fields and thatched cottages then), they own the land and it's right next to a legal settlement.

They've obviously broken the law by settling here, but on balance, wouldn't it be more ethical to let them be? The children are settled at school and getting an education. Lots of people are prejudiced against gypsies and travellers but they've got to live somewhere.

I've seen the news articles about it. It makes me feel sad.

Abra1d it is what the impactof the travellers has had on the education of chikdren in Crays Hill that upset sme most tbh

I can assure you southeast astra that this is not a new issue locally either for Essex CCor Basildon DC. They have not turned up and told the travellersthey have 24 hours to leave. This has been going on for over 10 years and every time the council gets a legal decision to stick, the travellers take it o appeal. They are not a defencless group being persecuted. They know the system very well.

Like I say. Nobody enjoys seeing anyone evicted from their homes. It's terrible that it has come to this but something, somewhere has to give. The situation locally cannot continue

Butterscotch I'm in Rayleigh :o

I haven't had much to do with them tbh although I obviously follow the story locally and know people in Crays Hill

I do see a lot of the children out at Baz Vegas though and am often open mouthed at how girls as young as 7 and 8 are dressed

I did once stop, late at night at a certain petrol station on the 127 and was harrassed / threatened by a group of travellers there who told me it was "their" place and I shouldn't go there again :(

Like I say, I have nothing against them per se, just am horrified on the imapct they have had on a small rural community

the "normal/traditional/old school" travellers should either seperate themselves or stand up to their community!

Many have seperated themselves, but it's not enough is it?

I'm a liberal urbanite, but I agree with everything you said fellationelson. Don't tar us all with the same brush :) excellent post btw

A neighbour virtually Curryspice! Was the petrol station near a garden furniture store and a cafe that used to be a little chef? I hate baz vegas - scares me that my children might want to go to a club there when they get older ;-( I've seen some kids 7 or 8 dressed to the nines with make up, fake tan, fake nails, etc... makes you wonder about the salons that allow it to happen ;-( one of the salons in our high street was the one in my big fat gypsey wedding who spray tanned a 6yr old! WTF? I avoid the place now I used to be a frequent user, my hen and wedding night my family n friends all got treatment there.... never again...

Dromratlee but they haven't are Dale Farm..... and they aren't go to the press about their disgust at the behaviour of other travellers...

butterscotch I live about 10 mins drive from the site in Berks although thankfully not in the same village. It has really blighted the area and no one can believe the fact that they've been given 18 months to move on. All the lovely open spaces around us have horrible huge cement blocks at entrance points to stop travellers taking up residence.

If they wanted to stay they should of done things the legal way not sneak in on a bank holiday as usual.

To be honest the reason why we must not let them stay because if you do it will set legal precedence and we don't want that

I wonder how it would be if I parked my car and family in the middle of Richmond park on a Friday evening ripped down the trees and put in pipe work the told every one else to fuck off and that it now belongs to me and may family and because its taken you so long to fight my endless battles I should stay

I would assume all these people including red grave wAnt dale farm to stay because they don't live their

Yes butterscotch that's the petrol station. Scared me a bit I must day. DH (at the time) was cross with me for going there but I had no idea it was "out of bounds" :(

day = say

These people are not travellers because they want to settle so they should get on the council list like every one else

You can't build on green belt land end off the man who tried to hide his house behind hay bales found out the hard way so will the travellers

MillieO outrage in Old Windsor lovely place last traveller wedding everything shut down! Awful impact on village local farmers threatened and bully exactly like Dale farm, two personal experiences of travellers in recent times boththe same....

Curryspice my il's live in Rayleigh! I didn't know the petrol station was out of bounds was only a guess! Another place to avoid....

Exactly maypole1 they know what they are doing and purposefully move on dates they are less likely to get promptly moved on....

The law has to be the same for everyone. They can't just decide we are taking over this land and start building without planning permission.

I am sure if some celebrity had built his mansion on greenbelt land without planning permission there wouldn't be many people getting upset when he was kicked out and it was knocked down!

They should have gone about things correctly in the first

In the first place even!

Crikey, this is bringing out all the Essex birds, isn't it? (adds self to list). I'm now going to think of Rayleigh Spicy whenever I see a post by CurrySpice!

Will be interesting to see how/if the eviction goes ahead. The women at Dale farm were shown building barricades and making petrol bombs on the local news a few weeks ago.

I'm no Essex bird gallicgirl

I am an incomer of a mere 15 years standing and still my Wolverhampton accent gets laughed at

I also know that it may be unpopular but I wonder how many of us are really not biased against Travellers?
I genuinely wonder what would happen if we spoke to some of the Heads of the big families and asked them how best to provide the sites that they need without this sort of action reoccurring.
I dunno if these camps are built up to flout tax laws and planning laws or because there is no real option.

I have seen terrible things said and done to people from the traveller community. They are defensive and clannish and aggressive and all the things people level at them at times but not always and not all of them.

What chance have you being born into a Traveller family. How does what happened at Dale Farm help any of the children on that site and how will the experience make them view people outside the community?

I wonder how we actually treat them? How we'd behave in their shoes

Oh bless. I'm an immigrant from the West Midlands too but the accent confusion is mutual between myself and work colleagues.

I lived on Merseyside for years so if I get any stick about the accent I just put on my toughest scouse accent and give them a Paddington Hard Stare.

(yup, thinking about curry...mmm...)

Butterscotch Im sitting round friends reading this conversation with them

and a particular thing got me, but I can see I made a mistake in coming on here and trying to coment on just one small part of it all. :)

Their parents should have thought about their children when they pitched up illegally in the middle of the night 10 years ago

You roll the dice and take you chances when you brake the law

In the uk you cannot even build a conservatory without planning permission so why do they think their special

If they done things properly when wouldn't be here one

This thread alone is clear evidence of why traveller communities should be discouraged anywhere.

People aren't against travellers purely because of their own prejudices, they are against them because of the way they conduct themselves.

The only reason I would not want them to be evicted would be because I wouldn't want them moving in down the road from me.

So I say tough, get them out, if they'd wanted to live there they should pay their taxes like the rest of us and abide by the law.

Do we know why they have such a high infant mortality rate? And low life expectancy? Coming from a pretty small gene pool accounts for a good deal of it I imagine, but what about beyond that?

Travellers pre empted the new but much opposed council site in my village. The landowner found them on her property, cutting down her trees for firewood, and she and her animals were threatened with stabbing when she told them to hop it. Do you know what the police did? Removed her fire arms!
That's why people don't want them!
On the plus side, I've always wanted to buy a field and live on it in a caravan whilst running it as a smallholding. Once the residents of Dale Farm and other similar traveller sites are allowed to continue, and a precedent is set, I can do just that!

No you won't Saggy - not unless you can prove you are of Traveller heritage!