The remains of the day

I came home this evening and discovered that the illegal traveller site had been abandoned.

This was the mess.

Others here

The gates to the site were forced off to allow entry of what ended up being in excess of 50 caravans along with transit vans etc.

The grassed areas are completely churned up.

There are piles of rubbish stacked up against the boundary fencing and backing onto local peoples' gardens. Worse still, there are obvious signs that some of the illegal campers apparently couldn't use toilets either!

You can also see the dustbins that had been purloigned from local residents' properties, but sadly, not used to any great effect.

The whole site is now deemed an environmental/health hazard and will need specialist clean up.

Gone, but not forgotten.

In the UK, in January 2011, there were officially 18,720 Gypsy/Traveller caravans in the UK - this figures comes from the UK government offical 'count' that is done twice each year.

?Approximately 6,600 caravans were on authorised socially-rented sites
?The number of caravans on authorised privately-financed sites was approximately 8,100
?Overall, the July 2011 count indicated that 79% of Gypsy and Traveller caravans in England were on authorised land and that 21% were on unauthorised land.

This encampment was unauthorised. It was established swiftly, immediately prior to Easter weekend, when local magistrate courts would not be in session and therefore afforded the traveller community a 'respite' that meant that they could not immediately be moved on.

The site was a locked site prior to their entry, with the gates having been forced in order to allow the entry of the traveller camp. This was a combined camp, an amalgamation of 3 different illegal camps that had been set up around our town for the previous month.

The previous site, also local to us, was left in an even worse state.

According to a document published by the government

"There is a serious shortage of authorised sites for Gypsies and Travellers across the country
with approximately one in five caravans on unauthorised sites. This has led to a growing
tendency for Gypsies and Travellers to buy land and develop it without planning permission
(unauthorised development) or camp on land that they do not own (unauthorised
encampment)."

Gypsies and Travellers are a part of our society and need appropriate places to live, just like the rest of the community.

I do believe that everyone should have somewhere safe to live. I also believe that we ALL have rights and responsibilities - this transient community had no right to leave this mess in our, or any, neighbourhood. They surely have a responsibility to respect the environment in which they choose, legally or illegally, to live?

I don't believe though, that the choice/necessity of the travellers' way of life should result in the short term (and in some areas, long term) devastation that the illegal sites create. I cannot believe that those members of the traveller community who do "do things by the book" are, for one second, happy that the reputation of a whole group of society is so easily tarnished by the behaviour and conduct of a proportion of their own community.

Surely, there has to be a way to live together, without the distrust and displeasure that such scenes create?