Feeling upset and a little intimidated

I understand your anxiey, sar while also agreeing that not all people in the travelling community are out to do harm.

There are three licensed traveller sites within 10 miles of us, English, Irish (which has recently doubled in size without permission of any sort being sought) and a sort of mixed site. The children attend the local primary schools. Some are very well behaved, some are the exact opposite. The major issue comes from a few very aggressive adults who seem to believe they are above any law and make their presence felt in an intimidating way within the school and often outside of it.

In the town we have a group of travellers who are moving from open site to open site leaving huge amounts of rubbish behind them. There is much reported intimidation of adults and children alike. I imagine the people from the licensed sites who are considerate are as angry about it as local people are. Its a problem, no easy answer but yes, I would be careful too, sar, until the behaviour of this group can be understood.

Yes, good and bad like with everyone but if i tipped the contents of my chemical toilet out onto the hedges by the village cricket pitch I would be in serious trouble, It is bad enough in this village if you don't clear up after your dog! Interestingly, there is a community of settled travellers near here, neat site, immaculate vans, and rumour has it they asked the cricket pitch temporary travellers to move on. Most of us are tolerant, but it is the mess, the destruction, the filth left behind, and no amount of cultural awareness or mutual respect can excuse this behaviour.

Over the past few years I have become friends with quite a few traveller families within my work as manager of a well known Charity where we supply everyday emergency essentials to families in need of help, the traveller families never applied for help of any sort but they did supply many many boxes of useful items that could be donated to people in need so please don't class them all the same, some are rough and ready but make a friend of a traveller and you have one for life they don't go in for fare weather friendships in any way at all.

There are good and bad in every community but the problem is so many travelling groups are antisocial and leave large amounts of waste and offensive mess where ever they go.

Improving relations is a two way stretch. If the travelling community want to have better relations with the rest of the population, they could improve it no end by just stopping fly tipping and leaving offensive rubbish behind them.

We had travellers on our village green. A few people who lived nearby saw that they were arriving and blocked the entrance with their cars. The travellers just pulled down the post and rail fencing alongside the entrances and drove on. The police were called but didn't show up for hours and by then it was too late.

The travellers were there for quite a while and literally trashed the place it cost £7,000 to clear up. They left old appliances, bags and bags of waste, garden waste from jobs they'd carried out and even a dog! They were aggressive to anyone and everyone. Even the police seemed not to want to get involved.

The same thing happened the year afterwards and residents managed to prevent them pitching up.

We now have a earth boundary around the green and both entrances have been blocked with massive stones. The only access now is via a heavy iron gate.

Like Luckygirl I have been in contact with many Traveller families through educating their children over the past decade. The children I have taught have always been very respectful to adults and the families have very high standards of personal cleanliness. I have learned a lot about Traveller cultures and traditions and appreciate that many of them are absolutely lovely people. Typically the children I have taught come from settled communities and most now live in houses.

The fact remains that some Travellers do unfortunately cause hostility by the way they treat the areas and amenities where they alight. And there seems to be one law for them and one for regular residents. There seems to be a nervousness re law enforcement and the perception is that they are allowed to go on their way without being fined or needing to make any recompense whatsoever for the damage they cause. Councils just seem relieved when they move on.

Sar53 I understand your fears. I hope that you do not alarm yourself unnecessarily re your own personal safety / security, but I suspect your community will have some clearing up to do in due course.

I often wonder if the travellers would be less messy if the council left a skip for them to put rubbish in.

I despise them with every fibre of my beng after a LOT of negative experiences. I genuinely don't know how they have manoeuvred themselves to be so above the law. The Police can't touch them.

The law of trespass would soon be applied to any of us if we dared to do the same thing though.

Travellers moved into a park overlooked by my sister's flat and the Council got rid of them in days. It is reasonable to be worried but a week is quite good really. I have been told by the Community Police that action has been started to get rid of by nightmare neighbour (who attracts gangs of men to our block of 4 flats who are threatening). I am pretty sure that proceedings have been started but the Council won't tell us anything because of confidentiality and I can't really nag the Police. She screams 'bitch' at me when I come into the building as she thinks that I started the complaints about her which I didn't, in fact I tried to help her but I was the only person that addressed her personally about how people felt and warned her.
It feels like a long time but the law has improved greatly over the last few years in this area. I dislike the Tories but this is one area where the changes in the law have been for the better. You do have to push to get anti social behaviour treated seriously by both the Council and the Police but the law is there once they can be forced to use it and you have overcome that hurdle.
A week will soon pass. Lock your doors and try not to interact with them in any way.

Lucky girl. Local councils have bent over backwards over the years to provide sites for these alleged travellers. There is only so much land available and the councils duty is to build houses and provide housing for the people who want stability for their children so tell me who should come first? A traveller choses to live a life where he has no overheads like the rest of us ie show me a destitute traveller with his expensive cars saying he wants the freedom of the open road but nevertheless expects the bricks and mortar for schooling for his children and the NHS for his health.So regardless of the upset he causes others he will camp where he choses.

paddyann- I feel sad that you have family experience but lets get real, travellers in the main make a lot of money and pay NO tax by doing jobs for people that are usually NOT done professionally and not done well. In the main ( watch the series gypsy wedding) they have plenty of spare cash but little consideration for others. Sar53, I would feel as you do ( I have had experience of traveller "con" men.) Lucky girl.....mmmm slightly naïve!but of course its only fair that if this is your view that's fine.

I have no problem with those who want to travel around.'Live and let Live'
I myself like to travel in our camper van and have just returned from a two-month trip. Whilst we were away, however, we did not break the law, camp illegally, or leave piles of rubbish all over the place. Travellers come to our area annually and do all of the above. Fly tipping seems to increase whilst they are here too. I'm not racist there is much to be admired about their culture and of course, there are good and bad in all cultures. We should, however, all be subject to the same laws and the laws around this subject need to be tightened up in my view.

It's quite wrong that after all these years the Police cannot instantly remove the offenders when trespassing. What's the difference if an intruder is in your house, you don't have to wait for a court order to get them out ?? There are rotten and decent people in all walks of life. However, dumping yourself on others people's property, disturbing the peace of others and leaving mountains of disgusting rubbish in your wake, for others to clear up, is not decent or right. We should all be able to choose how we live but also we should all have respect for others.

Travellers are especially protected by the Equalities Act which binds the hands of the police and allows them to behave in very anti social ways with impunity.

The fact that they own large static caravans but choose to travel around in expensive and well equipped vans all summer is becoming a nightmare problem for the communities whose peace they destroy, witness the constant picture stories in local and national newspapers of the chaos and mess they cause where they camp.

My village had a brief incursion. They mistakenly thought our village green was public land instead of privately owned by the PC so we were able to remove them within five days but in those five days the noise, mess and anti social behaviour reached unacceptable limits. The cost of the clear up and measures to prevent another 'raid' ran into thousands of pounds.

A couple of days later a nearby site in Burnham Beeches was invaded by travellers and then Denham, followed by Chalfont St Peter Green.

I am almost more angry at those who seek to defend the travellers' anti social and unacceptable behaviour than I am at the travellers themselves. After all, they have been given the green light by the legislation and by the virtue signalling values of those who passed it.

And to those who would disagree with me I'd ask you to reserve judgement until the day you actually see a piece of toilet paper covered in human faeces in your garden if it is too difficult to imagine and empathise with those who suffer.

I was out one morning and when I came home a man (traveller) emerged from my back garden. He said he was just trying to find me to see if I wanted any work done. I was quite frightened but he went on his way. We used to be plagued with them knocking our doors wanting to do jobs. I think they gave up in this area because no-one ever employed them.

Why do they only cause trouble in the summer? Where do they go in the winter?

In Essex the 'Pikey' is universally loathed. They are cruel to horses, enjoy dog fighting, a vet friend had to stitch together a poor little dog almost pulled apart and left behind, break down gates etc to gain entry to nature reserves( breaking into nearby beach huts) school playing fields, village cricket grounds and leave a filthy disgusting mess to clean up. The police will only enter a site in pairs. Hateful low life.

here in south dorset we have the traveller problem every year at this time. it's the same in my town and in the next one.
they rock up at a public area and damage gates/locks etc to get access and the police can't do anything about it.
their rubbish is horrendous and costs the councils an awful lot to clear up when they've finally been evicted.
and their behaviour is extremely anti social - even the children are threatening and carry knives.
there's a big steam fair down here every late august/early september and they're in the area for that.
but it seems from june onwards we are plagued with stories of them getting into public parks and also on council car parks [not multi storey ones] and it costs thousands of pounds to go to the courts to evict them.
where they go in the winter i have no idea but perhaps they live on sites local to them.
incidentally, we [as a town] are unable to offer a site for them - recently two areas were turned down by them as being unsuitable and there are no other sites where they want to go!

I don’t want to upset anyone or get shouted down but we often get travellers in the field next to us. The last time they set camp people were upset and hostile. I have to say in this case and in all cases in my area, I have not seen any evidence of dirt or a rise in crime in fact they normally act better than the locals. They always have horses and traps and my grand kids love to see them. They are always polite (if un- talkative) and they always allow us to visit their horses which are always well kept and beautifully presented. The local church is full when they visit. They never stay long and I have never ever seen a mess left, in fact, the last time they took lots of items that had been fly tipped so actually cleaned up the area.

Surly this is just another form of diversity and society should show some tolerance. Housing is in great shortage in this area is this just not a response to changing demographics as well as cerebrating and embracing a tradition? I guess my experience of travels has never been negative so my response is different.
In a world full of hate I just think someone needs to embrace diversity of culture.

But they've have actually done anything yet, have they?!

You are worried about potential damage and rubbish. But nothing so far.

Unclench your arse cheeks.

Have should read haven't

Some travellers tried to set up camp in our town a few years ago but came a bit unstuck when quite a few local people decided to enclose them by forming a circle of cars,vans etc around them ..effectively blocking them in. The police became involved pretty quickly and the travellers moved on. The council wasted no time in having massive boulders placed strategically in every available place possible in the town to prevent this happening again. They give themselves a bad reputation because of all the devastation and mess they leave without any thought to local people ...riding roughshod over any rules and regulations that they can get away with. I can remember a few years ago when all the news was about Dale Farm in Essex when a legal site was going to be closed. If I have remembered this correctly...local councils used to have a legal obligation to provide sufficient sites for travellers in England ..but in the mid 1990s the rules changed. Then the travellers would seek other places to camp up. Now so much land is no longer available because of all the extra houses being built they struggle to find places. What I do find very strange is the fact that many of these travellers actually have another home in Ireland ...often going back in December for Christmas and more family weddings. These homes are gated communities. Have seen all the Big Fat Gypsy series and can see that some families just cannot settle in any one place....what is the answer?

I'm with paddyann and luckygirl on this one. Don't be too judgemental. People are always in fear of something that isn't familiar to, or doesn't suit them. That's why we have so much hate crime.

It's Kennilworth Horse Fair tomorrow for 3 days, so we have travellers parked illegally all over the place, at least four sites I've seen and some Romany horse-drawn wagons parked on road-side verges with the horses tethered.

Every year the Irish tinker types leave a disgusting mess behind but the gypsies in the old fashioned wagons leave the verges spotless, as do one of the other groups. It would seem to be a case of the culture of that particular group and that like attracts like. Some groups are dominated by those who don't give a damn about others, but other groups are much more environmentally and socially aware.