Traveller’s Sites In South Cambs (Updated)

28/07/2009 by Lister Wilson.

This post has been submitted by a contributor.  The author of this guest post would like to stress that it an expression of personal opinion and does not represent the opinion, official or otherwise, of the Cambs. County Council, of the owner of this blog (Steve Tierney)  or of any other person or body.  (Future guest posts by other contributors would certainly be seriously considered.  If you are interested - email Steve Tierney with details of what you’d like to write about.)

Traveller’s Sites In South Cambridgeshire
By Cllr. Lister Wilson

Essentially this is a District Council matter but, as you will see from what follows, I’m not leaving it just to them.

The biggest investment in assets that most ordinary people have is their house. Some spend years improving theirs but all expect some kind of long-term return, at the very least for the value of their property not to fall. The current recession has caused a short-term setback in house prices nationally but they will recover. Even if you live in an Equity Share house, you expect your slice of the value not to fall and actually to increase. So it is that all house-holders, including those in fully-rented accommodation, look with alarm at the prospect of a Traveller Site nearby. For some, far away is not far enough. The effect of a Traveller Site in close proximity to settled housing is an instant drop in value. This arises because the house becomes virtually unsaleable and it may become nearly worthless. This is an intolerable imposition on anyone and for this reason I’m not in favour of Traveller sites anywhere near residential housing. I have not met any resident of any village who is in favour of a Traveller Site nearby. Maybe there are some, it’s just that I’d be surprised if there were and I wouldn’t mind hearing their point of view.

The proposal to site 10 plots for Travellers has been in the pipeline for a long time but it has originated with the East of England Regional assembly (EERA) and their puppet-masters the (Labour) Government. EERA  is an unelected quango  which the Conservatives will abolish. I believe that this Government doesn’t care too much for villages and rural areas and I draw that conclusion from their track record. South Cambridgeshire District Council has identified 12 likely locations based on nearness to services, including public transport. The facilities they deemed necessary to support a Traveller community are, on the whole, far better than most house-owners could expect. I think the priorities and policies need to favour the settled population first.

The experience of South Cambridgeshire (District Council) with Travellers is not a happy one. A group of them invaded (I use the term with precision) Smithy Fen north of Cottenham in 2003-4 and the Council asked John Prescott’s Department for help with finance (amongst other things) to pay for the legal challenges to move them. There was a deafening silence from Prescott. Eventually, last month, judgement was granted in favour of the Council and now the land is being restored to farming. Prescott’s Department wouldn’t even help with enforcing the law. There is an overwhelming suspicion that at least one of the travellers was responsible for the murder of an off-duty soldier outside a pub in Cottenham but no-one would admit to witnessing the event, all intimidated into silence. In Meldreth a purpose-built site with shower and laundry blocks had to be closed because the travellers destroyed it. Petty crime in the village rose during the time they were there. Again, one of the Council’s officers was badly injured being assaulted when he went on to the travellers’ site at Milton in 2002. They break the law with impunity by camping on our Park-and-Ride sites and on public parks in the centre of Cambridge. One of my constituents had his Land Rover stolen by gypsies from Potton and could prove it by flying low over the Site. It was recovered with a police escort. When Fred Moss, a Traveller from Sawbridgeworth went missing on 30th. November 2004, a throng of Travellers descended on South Cambridgeshire, entering farm houses and buildings without permission and intimidating the owners. Non-travellers cannot do these things and get away with them. That is the background to our view of Travellers.

The Government has decreed that South Cambridgeshire find about 159 pitches for travellers. It is another measure of Labour’s contempt for the countryside. It seems to me that to find permanent pitches for Travellers is a contradiction in terms, but there you are. The Council is using the argument that, travellers have a history of pitching their caravans on illegal sites so the solution to that problem is to provide them with legal ones.  It is a straight-forward sell-out to law breaking. There just isn’t masses of free land in South Cambs not near any villages, but I can assure everyone again that I have not met anyone who wants a traveller site anywhere near them. The residents of Bassingbourn, for example, are appalled that one of the proposed sites is in their village. Much the same reaction will occur elsewhere. I must point out that the Travellers do pay rent for their pitches.

I understand that the exact site of the traveller-pitches in Cambourne is yet to be decided. You can infer my view on this subject from what I’ve written here but South Cambridgeshire District Council, and its responsible member Dr. David Bard, are well aware of local feeling. Travellers’ issues have no votes – a bit like Overseas Aid, but much less important. You can be assured that this issue is well to the fore in my work and I will keep you informed of events and progress.

Just for the record, Travellers have suffered disproportionately since the joining of Poland and the other “eastern European countries” to the EU. In particular, well-educated Poles with immaculate English, first-rate manual skills and a prodigious capacity for hard work, and who look the same as the local community, have taken the unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in agriculture and construction which used to be the mainstay of travellers’ livelihood. Travellers also suffer very high infant mortality (a simply huge number of still births and deaths before school-age*) and a life-expectancy lower than any third-world country (including Zimbabwe - the lowest). There is no doubt that the travelling life-style is under pressure as never before. We may ask whether allowing Travelling to continue is not trying to preserve a quaint piece of history, because the benefits to everyone involved are hard to see. Maybe the time has come to bring it to an end.Cllr. Lister Wilson sent the above post to his local paper.  This week he has amended the article by sending a supplementary article to the paper.  For the sake of completeness, and because Lister has asked me to, here is the letter that was sent:-

The Editor
Cambridge News
Milton
Cambridge
29th. July 2009Re: Travellers in CambourneDear Paul,

I need to balance the article in Tuesday’s Cambridge News headed “Gypsy sites will hit house prices”, before I’m targeted by the Travelling community for misrepresenting them.

As Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council for the last two years, I was increasingly drawn to the huge difference in health and life expectancy between the settled population and the Travellers. This was a theme of my original article which contained such facts as very high infant mortality (up to twenty times that of the settled population), astonishingly low life expectancy – around 35 years shorter, and health needs which go with that life style.

In Cambourne we already have settled Traveller families. Indeed this is the pattern we would welcome for any more and the Parish Council has said so. Housing, I contend, is the most basic right in a contented population. With permanent housing goes a near doubling of life-expectancy, a good education for good jobs and all one’s children surviving. So I wonder why Travellers continue to travel when the disadvantages seem so clear.

My article listed nine breaches of the law, all traced to some Travellers and all featured at some time in the last 5 years in the Cambridge News. I did not make any accusations at all but others drew their own conclusions like Basil Burton of the Romany Rights Association and my colleague Councillor Kindersley. I wonder if either of them read what I wrote. The jobs market is collapsing for everyone but it’s especially hard for Travellers as their traditional employment is overtaken by machinery or immigrant workers.

I know settled Travellers, I have bought their services and even employed them. So let’s be very clear about this – life in even a luxury caravan has more drawbacks than living in a house. I know because I’ve done my homework. Welcome to a place of your own in Cambourne and a brighter future.

Yours sincerely

Lister Wilson
County Councillor for the Bourn Division
Cambridgeshire County Council

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