It is time to put an end to any more scenes like this being repeated
ISTARTED my career in journalism almost 17 years ago and, in every single one of those years, there’s been at least a few stories to cover about Traveller groups coming into contention with locals.
Anyone who lives just about anywhere in the Derbyshire Dales will understand just how much of a long-running saga this has been and, in recent years, two families have declared themselves homeless, so it’s not just an ugly problem for the district council to resolve; they now have a legal duty to find somewhere for them to settle.
We’re told very little about the families from the district council, but in a brilliant interview with our Local Democracy Reporter Eddie Bisknell, he invited them to spell out how it has been living on temporary sites for over 20 years, the difficulties they face and their increasing desperation to settle.
A family member told Eddie that one of their caravans was shot at, they’ve had stones thrown at them, abuse is constantly hurled at them, and I have personally watched someone lob a firework at them during a stay in Ashbourne a few years ago.
Obviously, after more than 20 years of living in limbo, they’re becoming sick of being pushed from pillar to post. They don’t want to stay in town centres, they don’t want confrontation, they just want to live their lives. And that should never be too much for a human being to ask.
So what should we do in the long term? If nobody comes forward with a site, how long should we keep moving these families from temporary site to temporary site?
The district council’s leader Garry Purdy has publicly hinted he is working with a landowner on securing another potential site somewhere, and I’ve been led to understand it’s in the Ashbourne area. But we’ve been here before. Deals like this get so far, the locals catch wind of it, there’s an inevitable outcry and the deal gets canned.
Interestingly, though, the district council does have the power of compulsory purchase. If its consultants have found some land that looked perfect, but failed to attract interest from its owner, they can vote to apply a much heavier hand.
This prevents the owner from becoming the bad guy, gives him or her a nice little windfall up to the market value of the land, and the Travellers finally have somewhere to settle.
Imagine if we could find a plot far enough away from any settlements on which the families can settle and live their lives, without coming into confrontations from locals, or bothering anyone. It doesn’t have to be all that remote, and there must be countless places where this is possible in the district. We are in quite a rural area, after all.
I realise that compulsory purchase seems like a desperate step, but these are desperate times. Every time there’s an unauthorised encampment it costs the council thousands of pounds, it upsets dozens of people and it really isn’t fair on the Travellers.
Winter will soon be upon us, and there’s a group of human beings that are facing the prospect of having to live in a car park with no running water or mains electricity. Put yourself in that position.
For everyone’s sake, it’s time that we got this long-running saga solved once and for all.
I realise that compulsory purchase seems like a desperate step, but these are desperate times.