Ministers tell gipsies: Prove you travel to set up camp

GIPSIES and travellers will have to prove they lead a ‘genuine travelling lifestyle’ in order to set up camps under a crackdown beginning today.

Councils have an obligation to provide suitable sites for ‘settled encampments’, such as the infamous Dale Farm, under the Housing Act 2004.

But the Government says these will no longer be provided unless applicants can prove they ‘travel permanently’ – such as for a few months every year. If they cannot provide evidence, they will face the same, more rigorous considerations as those making a planning application for a home.

Ministers say the new rules will protect the Green Belt from inappropriate development and ease tensions with the local population caused by a major rise in unauthorised traveller camps.

The number of gipsy caravans in England has increased by nearly a third since 2006 to over 20,000, according to recent figures from the Department for Communities and

‘Rules apply to every community equally’

Local Government. Of these, around 10 per cent are on unauthorised encampments.

An official at the department said there were no firm guidelines about what constitutes a nomadic lifestyle and it would be down to local planning officers to ascertain, based on factors such as if travellers’ children attended local schools.

The draft planning rules released today will state: ‘For planning purposes the Government believes a traveller should be someone who travels.

‘Travellers who have given up travelling permanently should be treated in the same way as the settled community, especially regarding sites in sensitive locations, such as in the Green Belt.’

Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis said: ‘Unauthorised traveller sites can blight communities ... creating resentment that planning rules don’t seem to be applied fairly. Today’s revised planning policy clearly sets out the protection against unauthorised occupation and that the rules apply fairly to every community equally.’