Tax, crime and litter: Traveller mum busts myths about lifestyle
A TRAVELLER has spoken about her community’s lifestyle to bust myths about their way of life.
Amy Gentle regularly travels through Derbyshire on her way to see her husband’s family in Leeds, but originates from Berkshire.
The 46-year-old was persuaded to address many of the myths she often encounters about her community, including on housing, tax, crime and litter, after seeing many incorrect assumptions online.
The mum-of-five said that English Travellers are known as Romanis, and Irish Travellers are known as Pavees.
The group originated from India, but have been in the UK for around 500 years. The term Gypsy, Amy believes, comes from the historic links to the Egyptians, and she explained several other misconceptions about the Traveller way of life.
HOUSING
There are around 300,000 Travellers in the UK, with two-thirds living in physical homes, according to the advocacy group Friends, Farmers and Travellers (FFT). However, 25,000 have no legal place to stay, as common land isn’t available to them and there is a shortage of permanent and transit sites.
If Travellers pitch up on private land, this is not a criminal offence, but instead is a civil offence (or tort) of trespass. It is then up to the landowners, not the police, to ask them to leave should they wish, while some may be happy for Travellers to stay.
According to FFT, many Travellers were pushed onto the roadsides by The Caravan Sites Act of 1960, which aimed to control caravan sites. This made it harder for members of the community to stay on small plots of land without a licence, and even those staying on the private land of farmers they were working for could no longer do so, meaning they had to go elsewhere.
Amy said: “Whether a Traveller is Irish or English, councils rule that they must travel three months out of 12 or they will lose their Traveller status for planning purposes. So, even if a Traveller doesn’t want to travel, they have to go on the road if they want to keep their identity.
“It’s stupid, it’s absolutely ridiculous. That is why you might see a peak in Travellers in the summer months, as that is when they choose to go, and there may be a bigger influx as Travellers take their children out during the six-week school holiday. Even if they don’t want to travel, they have to.”
Amy owns her own property in Berkshire, and has done for 14 years, but sometimes travels for more than three months of the year. When she travels, she takes two caravans for her, her husband and their five children.
In 1968, the law was changed to force councils to provide accommodation for Travellers coming to and staying within their jurisdiction, but this was repealed in 1994. This removed the need for authorities to provide sites, and increased their powers to evict unauthorised campers.
This means that many Travellers now buy permanent accommodation to follow the rules. But Amy explained that, as well as difficulties getting planning permission, this conflicts with the Traveller identity and way of life, which historically has been oriented around moving from one place to another for work.
In 2015, the government released its Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, which said that “local authorities should make their own assessment of need” for sites. Sites are only required if a council can prove there is demand.
The aim was to reduce tensions between the Traveller and settled communities, create more private Traveller provision, and to allow Travellers to access better education, healthcare and jobs. It recently created a £10 million Traveller Site Fund to help councils create sites, in addition to the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme for the same purpose.
Derby City Council currently only
runs one permanent or transit site, a 17-pitch plot at Imari Park. It said it is looking at options to add to facilities, but nothing has been decided as yet.
A spokesperson said: “We assess Traveller accommodation needs roughly every five years in line with Government guidance set out in Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (2015). The current Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) for Derby, Derbyshire, Peak Park and East Staffs was published in 2015, and a refresh was commissioned in 2019.
“The completion of the refresh has been heavily hampered by the pandemic and we hope to have a new finalised GTAA published in the coming months.”
Elsewhere in Derbyshire, there are other sites either run by or leased to borough and district councils. They are:
■ Foston (near Sudbury): 22 long-stay pitches and four transit pitches;
■ Lullington Crossroads (near Swadlincote): Eight transit pitches;
■ Winsick (near Chesterfield): 16 longstay pitches and four transit pitches;
■ Blackridge (near Pleasley): 20 shortstay pitches.
TAX
Amy says the belief that Travellers do not pay tax is “absolute rubbish”. She said that Travellers cannot pay council tax if they are not afforded a permanent place to stay, such as a dedicated Traveller site, and like everyone else, must pay for utility bills and living costs.
She said: “Those that are on the road can’t pay council tax as they are not given the opportunity to pay council tax. It would be a privilege for most Travellers to be in a position to pay council tax, but it isn’t given to us.
“Every other tax, of course, applies to us like it does for anyone else. But council tax doesn’t, because how can it?”
A spokesperson for Derby City Council said that any Traveller staying at its permanent site does pay council tax, and Amy added that fees for utilities and any other bills need to be paid if staying at a transit site elsewhere.
She also added that Travellers may often seem flashy or rich, but this is because they may not have a mortgage to pay, and their caravans and other vehicles also depreciate in value, like everything else.
LITTER AND HYGIENE
Amy acknowledged that there is a belief that Travellers frequently leave rubbish behind. But she said this goes against the community’s traditions and values, and said she always takes rubbish with her.
She said: “There is the myth that Travellers leave rubbish, are all dirty, and destroy the green spaces. But Romani and Irish Travellers have very high standards of cleaning.
“We’re extremely strict on cleanliness. A Traveller woman’s pride and joy is her home and hygiene is extremely important, it has been passed down through generations.”
FFT said: “Travellers stopping on unofficial encampments may be moved on in the middle of the night and thus not be given the chance to clean up after themselves; leaving areas in a mess only worsens social tension and local communities’ negative perceptions of Gypsies and Travellers.”
JOBS
Traditionally, Travellers worked on farms or in manual professions, such as blacksmithing. After the Second World War, they helped to reconstruct many parts of the country which were damaged by the war.
Many now live in and around urban centres, as they rely on this for trade and provisions, but this means there are fewer places for them to pitch up. Amy has rubbished the myth that Travellers do not wish to work or are lazy.
She said: “There is a myth that we don’t contribute, and we have never contributed. But traditionally, before machinery took over, we were the backbone to farmers. That is where we went travelling, from one farm to another for seasonal work, and we were welcomed.”
CRIME
There is a long-standing perception that crime increases when Travellers arrive in an area. But Amy says this too is an unhelpful stereotype.
She said: “I don’t know why we are not liked. With crime, there are no statistics out there to say that crime goes up when Travellers are in the area.
“But it seems like when we arrive, people say ‘lock your doors’ and similar, when there is crime in the settled community that people seem blind to.”
FFT also said: “There is no evidence to suggest that crime rates go up when Travellers move into an area. All communities have a minority of members who may commit crime, Gypsies and Travellers are no different from anybody else.
“Media reports and images are often inaccurate and discriminatory and unfortunately, for Gypsies and Travellers, people usually believe what they read in the mass media and prejudices are formed or compounded.”