Star’s front row seat for sporting history
- Local newspaper week
County plan for gipsy pitches
Thursday 30th July 2009, 4:00PM BST.
More than 120 new gipsy “pitches” could be created in Shropshire under proposals being tabled by regional assembly bosses in Birmingham.
The West Midlands Regional Assembly plan would mean a sharp rise in the number of gipsy sites in the next 20 years.
But fears were raised today that rural Shropshire was being given a “disproportionate” share compared to other parts of the region.
Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury, also accused the assembly of trying to make the county a “soft target”.
A public consultation has begun over the plans, with three possible options.
The first suggests 93 new pitches for Shropshire, while the second option, to distribute on the basis of both “need where it arises” and potential land supply, proposes 122 gipsy pitches. The third option is for 86.
Telford & Wrekin could also see up to 46 permanent gipsy pitches being created.
Figures for other areas include between three and 14 for Coventry, none for Redditch and between two and 14 for rural Staffordshire Moorlands.
Mr Kawczynski said today: “I am extremely concerned if it’s being proposed that Shropshire is taking a disproportionate amount.”
He added he would be writing to other Shropshire MPs for support to get a debate in Parliament on the plans for a potential 122 additional pitches. He said: “We must not allow this quango to use us a soft target for a national problem.”
David Clarke, of the WMRA, said the plans were only at consultation stage.
Jake Berriman, Shropshire Council head of strategy and policy, said a gipsy and traveller accommodation needs assessment had looked at existing provision and future requirements.
Sponsored Links
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
This is excellent news for the gypsy, Romany and travelling communities. I await the usual tirade of prejudice to be published in response to this report and I shall say this: How can we ever build a better society without tolerance to all sectors of our diverse and vibrant community?
Report abuse
I don’t care about Birmingham and I don’t want people in Birmingham making decisions about Shropshire. Shropshire is not part of the West Midlands, we are a border county and Shrewsbury has a higher ethnic Celtic DNA profile than Cardiff – proven fact.
Report abuse
“This is excellent news for the gypsy” says H. St. John (whilst expecting a tirade of prejudice?)
There is good and bad in all communities, unfortunately we don’t get to hear to much about the good side of these travelling communities, perhaps that will change but most peoples perception is that not a lot of good comes from these communities next to you.
Having had some dealings in the past with them, when they have illegally set up camp, my view is perhaps a little towards the negative to say the least.
Report abuse
Mr Peasbody, what a wonderful P.C response. I presume you will be allowing said “travelling communities” to set up camp on/near your property so you can celebrate the rich tapestry of travelling life. But please remember to respect the environment and your fellow “non nomadic” taking that old sofa, car tyres,human waste etc with you.
Report abuse
Building a better society what about building more affordable homes for peple born here and have no hope of ever owning their own home
Buy a caravan call youself Romany or some other ethnic and this govenment will take care of you
Report abuse
Its a statutory requirement that all local authorities have to provide gypsy and traveller sites. Shropshire is now one authority covering the majority of the largest inland county in England. I don’t think 120 individual pitches is going to make that much of a difference.
The Regional Assembly by the way is made up of representatives from each authority in the region. It will have been down to Shropshire Council to identify the capacity and potential sites it will not have bee impoosed on them by Birmingham.
Report abuse
It is not a given right to be able to own your home.
Report abuse
I just have to laugh at our sad little country!
Going going gone!!!
Report abuse
Anyone read the Daily Mail today?
I’m not sure we can use Facebook to organise a county-wide ‘human shield’ like one particular estate did, but there appears to be a confusion in the way that legitimate Romany gypsy travellers are being lumped in with the troublesome ‘pikey’ travellers that are known for anyhting upwards of organised crime where they settle. Councils would be better serving us to determine which is which before offering them land…
Report abuse
Great news. Was worried about getting a foot on the property ladder but not any more going to buy a nice caravan and become a gypsy. No council tax and a life of early retirement. Going to contact the regional assembly bosses hopefully get a good spot for my family.
Report abuse
ryestone said:
“No council tax”
And don’t forget no National Insurance, Income Tax, car tax or insurance – and the world’s your toilet!!
Report abuse
The point here is WHY?? these people do not seem to contribute to the system and yet they have access to our health service, and our schools, they are travellers and as such why should they be given things such as land to set up home on? they are then not travellers, and as such should then be liable to full councill tax and should be registered as selfemployed a legal requirment lets see the paper work please lets see this shower in charge go to these sites and ensure they are regitered as selfemployed if not and they are not on benefits confiscate their items if they cant prove how they paid for them .Come on lets get tough we abide by the rules enough of this pc limp wristed rubbish enough is enough.
Report abuse
I think its wonderful that more eco-friendly accomodation is coming to Shropshire. As the Green Party will tell you, carvans are made of metal, and the metal comes for recycled metal and is recyclable when finished with. However, concrete produces its own weight in CO2 from production!
Well done Birmingham for listening and learning from the Green Party on how to care for our environment.
I look forward to more great schemes like this.
Report abuse
Why should Shropshire have them, make room for them in Birmingham
Report abuse
Lucy W, one question, you say caravans are eco friendly, remind me, how do they move from site to site?
Also who will be paying for these sites…not our travelling communities i’m sure…
Report abuse
what do they want concrete for?? leave it green and they can have a few allotments and use their own human waste as fertilizer and the odd one can camp their too. I have a field infact 1 1/2 acres if these gypsies want to buy it then give me a call and i can do a deal , i doubt the people in the houses next to the field will like it but hey ho snout in the trough for me if the price is right, and i do not come cheap…..
Report abuse
A pity to see the usual racist nonsense spouted by John – it’s a common urban myth that ‘ethnics’ somehow gain advantage in housing matters – fortunately recent highly creditable studies have shown that there’s simply no evidence to support this.
Moving on to travellers, Grey is correct in saying that there is a statutory requirement to provide pitches. Woody is also correct, in his statement that illegal encampments are often left in a disgusting state by their temporary occupants.
I believe there needs to be a twin approach. We should provide land for pitches to meet the legal requirements, with the occupants obliged to pay a weekly rent, part of which is a proportionate amount of Council tax to pay for services provided locally.
At the same time, the law on illegal encampments should be tightened to allow for eviction at a maximum of 24 hours notice.
This would represent a responsible and fair approach, from the perspective of all concerned.
Report abuse
Please don’t put them too close to me. I haven’t got enough nails to nail all my property down !!!!
Report abuse
Andy, these caravans move with the nomadic workforce, just the same as static-dwellers travel to and from work daily. What goes round, comes around. Such new sites will reduce unnecessary travel to and from temporary sites. Next you will be saying no-one should have a caravan holiday because there are B&B’s.
And why should they pay for the site? Do children pay for their education? No! Childless people like me do in the belief that in some way we are making a better society.
You may not like gypsies, but my friend from the former East Germany was very disappointed on her recent visit that the gypsies near me had moved on as she would have liked to have seen the romance of their nomadic and eco-friendly lifestyle. The average gypsy has a lower carbon footprint than Al Gore – that’s a fact!
Peter said “At the same time, the law on illegal encampments should be tightened to allow for eviction at a maximum of 24 hours notice”
All very well, but I am sure that you would wish to side with the law that takes the needs of children as paramount. This means that the children’s needs, such as health n deduction, must be assessed by the council before a court order for eviction can be made. Now as we all know, the councils are not hives of productivity and so this takes a long time, and meanwhile new children arrive at the side making the task never ending.
In here lies the problem hence the proposal for official sites is the prefered solution to council inefficiency.
Report abuse
According to a report on BBC Radio Shropshire this morning,the reason Shropshire has been chosen, is because we are a large Agricultural County, and that traditionally, “Gypsies have always worked on the land”.
Can anyone see the flaw ? I’ll give you a clue, it’s the fourth word from the end>
Report abuse
What a fine suggestion, nothing like supporting employment in the county. Locksmiths, security fencing, extra locks for diesel tanks and lorries, locks for plant equipement, council workers to clear up the mess, Police and associated agencies to deal with the crime, water / gas / electricity companies to tell us about bogus callers. Trading standards to sort out the tarmaced drive that cost £3000, or the guttering cleaned for £1000, or the tree’s cut for how much!. Come the revolution…I could go one but Eastenders has just started….
Report abuse
i agree with harold, there is nothing wrong with genuine travelling folk, gypsies, romanies etc. it is the modern drop outs, hippies, didicoys etc who leave such a mess when they are evicted.
certainly we do not want big brother brum telling shropshire who we will take. shropshire is for salopians and it is their councillors who should decide.
i learnt something today, a cricketing story. in the old days there was a cricket club called I ZINGARI which in some language means gypsies. anyone know which language
Report abuse
we must drive these people out of our county, shropshire is too precious to let them wreck it
conservative governemnt will get gypsys to go home and legislate to protect rural communities
Report abuse
i agree and thats why i’ll be voting conservative, labour are soft on foreigners coming in, the gypsys come from romania and i dont want them here, we need to unite to keep them out
Report abuse
ignore the racist rants
the proper point is that regional governance of this type is undemocratic, the regional spatial strategy has dumped 50,000 homes on shropshire, now caravans to follow, i say NO lets have shropshrie people decide on these things locally and be held to account
we need more local powers for local councils and less national and regional and EU governance, for the sake of democracy and public faith in politics, lets devolve power now!
Report abuse
the case for the abolition of the West Midlands Regional Assembly is there
Mr Cameron when you get it, make it a priority please, no more AWM, GOWM, WMRA, WMSS etc etc
Report abuse
A party political comment
Vote green and have romantic eco friendly gypsies
as neighbours !! the chioce is yours!
Lucy what is an average gypsy?
Report abuse
thankfully there is as much chance of diddy david cameron forming the next government as a romany caravan flying over the moon. and it is racist rants from tory boy that will ensure we have gentle socialism for all for the forseeable future.
well done gordon keep up the good work!
Report abuse
we must stop these people coming here
GET OFF MY LAND! as the farmers would say
Report abuse
Local lad – ‘the gypsys (sic) come from Romania’.
I think you’ll find that whilst many generations ago original Romany people may have had concentrations of population in that part of the world, there is evidence that they originated longer ago in South Asia, possibly in Mediaeval India.
There are a wide variety of travellers in the UK today. Some are genuine Romanies, others are from Ireland, and some are dropouts from society locally.
Some are tidy and prepared to work and pay their way – for example a lot of casual farm work in the UK is done by travellers – others are not, as is the case with many other areas of society.
Your simplistic, racist, view contributes nothing to the debate, and is based upon ignorance.
I would seriously suggest that you educate yourself before commenting again.
Report abuse
omg people are so biggotted from shropshire
the travellers are from the UK mainly they just choose to live in a mobile home! Give them a break, over a million people in the Uk live like this and its quite normal i think appealling to some kind of primeval nomadic streak in man
i dont see why the green party get accused of being pro caravans, as they are into energy efficiency i suspect they would prefer to see people living in homes with well built wall and insulation lucy
Report abuse
put these gypsys in birminghamif they like them so much !
there should be a big empty building at the government offices of the west midlands once cameron gets in an taks the axe to these beaurocrats
Report abuse
Mary Sparce – unfortunately most of the ‘travellers’ that take over Shropshire are the sort that ‘Telford Pete’ describes. These people aren’t interested in saving the earth. They are taught their ‘trade’ from a very young age. By six they can throw stones at police with some precision; by ten can spin a good yarn that will have your granny in tears and by twelve have mastered the art of using false names to avoid identification. By the time they are an adult they have mastered the art of ‘not me sir’ when police come to recover the stolen cars/caravan/trailer etc or arrest them for tarmacing an old lady’s drive for an extortionate fee prior to helping themselves to her life savings… and when they eventually leave, the council or landowners are left to clean up their human excrement and repair the damage and chaos they have left behind. Take my word for it and hope that you never have them setting up camp next to your house!
Report abuse
I am happy that we are going to welcome some gypsies and travelling folk to Shropshire. I, for one, cannot wait. They will help cut the cost of living.
The price of fuel has been too high for too long and at last, I’ll have a new source for my car. At about 45p a litre, I’m surprised that anyone is complaining about these folk. They certainly give Shell and BP a run for their money.
Oh yes, cothercott kid at 22, “I Zingari” > Italian for “The Gypsies”.
Report abuse
You have good gypsies and bad ones and unfortunately the bad ones have coloured our views, reports of increased crime and dodgy trading follow them wherever they go.
Report abuse
Mary, caravans are well built and insulated. They just create less drain on the earths resources and less pollution in their construction.
Concrete creates it own weight in CO2 via its production. Ask Huw Peach if you don’t believe me, then add up how much concrete you have in a traditional house. Then compare that to the CO2 from driving a car to the moon and back and you will that caravans are greener and the only way to stop global warming.
Its time to ignore Jeremy Clarkson, say no to zenophobia and Go Caravaning!
Report abuse
mary space said: “… a million people in the Uk live like this [in a mobile home] and its quite normal..”
Thank you Mary for confirming what has often been said about me – I’m one in a million!
Report abuse