To think that rights/wrongs aside, a council needing to make £300m cuts should focus it's funds somewhere other than evicting gypsies?

[Blubell]

I know there are massive fors and againsts in the Dale Farm evictions, and I don't want to start a big travellers debate, but in this time of austerity measures, and the fact that Essex council needs to cut £300m in 3 years, is evicting the site now, when it's a case that has been going on for 10 years really the best way to spend the little cash they have? Its been reported it's going to cost the council £18m to return the site - which used to be a scrapyard so hardly a place of outstanding beauty - back to greenbelt, how many carers, libraries etc will be lost to fund that? Just a thought.......

Traveller,s arent a race but they are an ethnic minority and are protected by the Race Relations Act.

I agree with Lady.

I live in the South West. Many,many young people in Devon/Cornwall can't live in the community they were brought up in and have to move away from their culture and what they know due to house prices and 2nd home owners.

Why is this just something we have to put up with in the SW?Why can't Cornish and Devonian youngsters get planning permission to pitch up chalets etc on family property if it's ok for the traveller community?

I can accept that they are an ethnic minority, that is something I have learned from these threads.

What I'm not prepared to accept is every opinion, apart from a few posters', being racist purely on the basis that we disagree.

I'm from Essex. I was born there, brought up there, lived there all my life until I divorced. Then I couldn't afford to live there. I'd love to be able to move back, it's where most of my family, and pretty much everyone I know, lives.

But I can't afford to.

My kids will probably never be able to live down here with their grandparents,parents and community.

They could if I was allowed to build on cheap green belt land.

If Dale Farm residents are allowed to do it we should all be allowed to do it.

MrsHeffley,I live in that area as well and I can only think of one traveller,s sie and that is council run,I dont understand what you mean when you say"Why is this just something we have to put up with in the SW?",its not as if the SW is overun with traveller,s sites.

SarahStratton,we were both on the other Dale Farm thread and think we both agreed that there were quite a few racist comments on that thread leading to numerous deletions however on this thread I havent seen anything that has warranted reporting or deleting.

i have had dealings with the travelling fraternity. every single time without fail it has been horrendous. i would like to think of my self as open minded and unbiased and im basing this on my own experiences and consciously not what ive heard or read, but without fail, the travellers i have personally dealt with have been the most jaw droppingly self entitled people i have ever ever come across. people tend to get a reputation for a reason and while i would love to think they cannot all be of the same ilk, in my own experience they have done themselves any favours. i would love to be proven wrong. it deflated me to have my political correctness corrupted. but i cant deny what ive experienced first hand.

There are actually a number of traveller sites in Devon.

Re "something we have to put up with" I mean our kids not being able to buy down here and having to move up country. Why is it just tough luck for us and not travellers?

All this wailing about travellers not being offered culturally adequate alternatives.Lucky them being offered anything,we get offered buggar all help to stay living near our family and community.

Are you mixing up traveller sites with Romany gypsy sites,because I know there are a great number of Romany gypsy sites in Devon,many who were born and bred in that county.

It's not about their race or ethnicity - it's about the law.
I hope Essex Council see this through or else it sends a terrible message about flouting the law and getting away with it. Cuts or no cuts.

Bubbles, knowing your DH's background, I can honestly say that you are one of the few people on this thread that I would listen to if you said I was being racist. Thank you for that, it is much appreciated.

Many people are born and bread in Devon and Cornwall,they get no help what so ever to stay in their community near their family.

As for your kids not being able to buy down here,my kids are in the same situation ,they cant see themselves buying house in the near future,a problem that is replicated in many parts of the country.I feel that Devon,s property prices are down to second homes by the seaside,standing empty for most of the year.

Sorry 'bred'-had wine .

But what help do travellers get,the land was purchased by then ,it wasnt given to them.

Did the bread have jam and cream on it

It's not just by the seaside it's everywhere,on the moors,anywhere pretty.

The fact is nobody cares there are already ghost towns in Cornwall and most SW teenagers know they'll have to leave due to little/poorly paid work and expensive housing.

It bugs me the double standards.The Devon/Cornish culture is being eroded but nobody cares.I get the lack of money and times are a changing but if we have to except that so do traveller families.

Green belt land is cheaper down here.I could eventually afford to buy a greenbelt plot that had no planning permission(way cheaper than land with planning permission),set up chalets for the dc but I'd be stopped as nobody wants chalets/caravans up on Dartmoor.

We all have to abide by rules to protect our green and pleasant land.

My dad wasn't even allowed planning to dig out a hedge and replace it with a wall.

It's rules and if travellers want to be treated just like everybody else they have to abide by rules just like everybody else.

The thing is that the majority of Romany gypsy families have accepted that times have changed,their traditional work is no longer viable and therefore the children are receiving full education and then training for mainstream jobs,this doesnt seem to be the case with the traveller families.

I will agree with you that the wages are appalling,just up the road in Bristol, an unskilled warehouse person is earning as much as my fully qualified MOT tester son is earning,it just doesnt seem fair that he has had to work so hard for little reward with no hope of more money unless he moves away from friends and family.

The bread had peanut butter on it and I'm feeling a tad queasy(not a good combo with wine).

I'm still not understanding how, if people chuck up chalets on a landowner's land, with the landowner's permission but not with planning permission, then the council starts charging the 'illegal' residents council tax and the landlord charges rent and the council processes claims for council tax and housing benefits.

Which is what the Telegraph is saying today.

My dp would get double elsewhere in his line of work. Sadly he's going to have to do the London/midweek thing for a while and be away from the dc to keep us down here.It's a constant battle staying down here,I know sooo many people struggling to stay.

Have excepted my dc won't be able to.

SarahStratton,sorry I missed your post,thank you for your kind words,I do try to play fair,I will shout "racist" when I see it but as yet I havent seen much on this thread.Some posts remind me of the people gathering around the gallows before a hanging but I suppose they have had to live there.

Confusingly - and maybe wrongly, all the systems of planning permission/tax and various other systems such as business rates do not work coherently together. A Council may try and take action against an unauthorised house/place of work yet perversely still engage with it in other ways that seem to contradict that.