Travellers (From Penarth Times)

Travellers

HAVING read the recent, massive media coverage and seen the relevant photographs, huge numbers of decent, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens must be sickened by the despicable tactics being employed by thousands of today"s travellers/gypsies in their attempts to set up permanent sites in or immediately adjacent to Britain"s small towns or villages.

I can only hope that no Penarth resident - or councillor - is foolish enough to believe that "it could never happen here" - because, of course, it already has!

Some years ago, I well remember travellers first occupying sites in the fields alongside Penarth Road and at the foot of Leckwith Hill with, as police records will confirm, predictable results.

Soon afterwards a smaller "convoy" brazenly moved overnight into the Dingle, no less!

For all we know, these three camps might still be with us if Britain had then a Labour government led by Euro-fanatic Tony Blair, who was later, some four years ago, to sign the European Convention of Human Rights.

Ever since, from the lowest courts in the land to the highest, there appears to be confusion over whether this document takes precedence over British law and there is the serious implication that our town councils are now obliged to set aside space and facilities for gypsy/traveller sites and, some months ago, the headline in one of our top daily newspapers read "A gypsy camp in every town?"

Even more recently, another reported that London Harringey Council had paid a large sum of ratepayers" money to persuade its travellers to "move on".

I wonder where? I also wonder whether our own local council has any contingency plans to cover this horrible situation.

I doubt it, when it can"t even bother to find tenants for its West Lodge on the Cliff Walk, which has remained empty for many years.

Which finally brings me to the Harbour View (Billybanks) site.

At least the West Lodge was maintained, but our councillors should be deeply ashamed of the virtually long deserted, once thriving community site, but now regularly available for discarded furniture, refrigerators, burned out stolen cars etc. Nevertheless, a very tempting target for our gypsies and travellers who would be quite capable of settling their families quite comfortably and gaining access to already handy water, power supplies etc.

So long as we hang on to a government obsessed with the human rights of the minorities rather than the rest of us, the next few years could be very interesting.

I half wish I could still be around!

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