Travellers, what do we do with them ?

[ali jenkins]

What a shame that would be!

 

[Seagull's Return]

Readingstockport's right, I think - this comes down to how individuals behave. I can only speak from my own experience of rural and semi-rural sites, which is that many travellers keep and leave their sites in good order (I'm primarily talking about unauthorised access here, haven't had much to do with authorised travellers' sites) and cause no problems to others in the vicinity, while some cause absolute mayhem and completely trash the place. From personal observation again, there's perhaps less trashing done by new age/hippy travellers than by the more established "traditional" travellers. I'm not sure this is an area in which it's either advisable or justified to extrapolate general rules from one or two specific cases.

 

[Rougvie]

Cant imagine why anyone would defend 'white van' pikeys.

They often leave a trail of destruction, their dogs/cats/children shit everywhere and generally make a mess, they dump rubbish that they are paid to take away in public parks etc, so the council then have to clear it up. Whenever they set up their little camps theiving and general criminal activity increases in the area, as someone already has stated, most carry knives from a very young age.

The latest scam that they run round our way is stealing pet dogs as fodder for their illegal dog fighting, and dont think the badgers you see lying at the side of the road have been hit by cars, most of them have been baited by these wankers and chucked out of the back of a P reg transit.

Utter utter scum of the earth.

 

[DIFFBROOK]

I dont have a problem with travellers as such, but I do have a problem with those that stay on land that is not authorised for such things........after all I'm not. And I have a big problem if mess is left behind.

So the answer is, where they stay on unauthorised land, then the Police move them on and where they leave litter they should be brought before the courts, just like you and I would.

I know it would mean a Copper or Community Support Officer (or whatever they are called) keeeping watch day and night, but then again isn't that what most coppers do by motorways etc

 

[magoo]

Most travellers are absolute scum! Your heart sinks when they suddenly appear over night doesn't it!

They have absolute disregard for normal society and don't give a shit what mess they leave a family park in, Wild park for instance. I swear at least THREE seperate sets of pikeys turned up there one after the other recently. Horses an' all!!

 

[beorhthelm]

some say that they dont have enough sites, but i think you'll find over the years sites have been given over to permanent setups, which are then shunned for reasons given (particularly tax aviodance).

and make no mistake, typical travellers these days are not "gypsies" or new age hippies whatever. most of them have settled down in communes because of the tarred image brought about by the pikey scum type.

 

[Stinky Kat]

Are the police, security guards at shops and guadians of our society scared of travellers because the seem to break the law at will without any of the punishments the normal man in the street gets

 

[desprateseagull]

charge them for using the grounds, or just clamp them - with a £100 release fee each, towards the cleanup..

just make sure you have your gypsy curse insurance paid up to date!

 

[chip]

They are scum like all spongers.
Make them conform or ship them out.

They made camp in a field within a few hundread yards of our place recently and were there for a couple of weeks and if the wind changed direction you could smell them.
They raced their four wheeled Motor bikes all over the farmers fields.
Can the Police be arsed they would rather hide behide bushes and nick people for going a few miles an hour over the speed limit.

If that was the lot at Hunters Race or by the airfield then the still seem to be around. They are thieving violent scum who should be sent back to Ireland after all their possesions have been confiscated. Unfortunately, Ireland got fed up with their antics and harrassed them enough that they came here.

Now the travellers around Funtington and Hambrook are very different and don't seem to get up to the same antisocial behaviour. They work fairs and carnivals and really do travel. They also own their own sites, which have planning permission, and pay rates.

 

[desprateseagull]

there were also some in the carpark off the devils dyke road, just past the bypass turnoff - seen last week, dunno if still there..

how do they make any money??

 

[Pavilionaire]

Surely other countries have this problem and there must be some best practice out there we can potentially copy?

I know for a fact the Germans had a very effective policy when dealing with gypsies.

 

[Rougvie]

how do they make any money??

EASY.

They have knowledge and contact of every dodgy builder or tradesman that will only pay cash in any area they set up in, they will offer to take your old washing machine / garden refuge away for cash, then dump it in the nearest park, they steal from shops, houses and sheds then knock it off at car boot sales on a different patch, or in the pub. If you have ever had the offer of your driveway tarmaced you can bet the raw materials were nicked from the nearest council depot, these wankers havel even stolen shingle off Shoreham beach and sold it on as garden decoration.

They arm themselves to protect their money, some of these caravans have thousands in cash stashed away in them, some of them go back to Southern Ireland in the winter and have a very good standard of living

 

[chip]

Surely other countries have this problem and there must be some best practice out there we can potentially copy?

The Irish policy is very effective, that is why they are all here.

 

[Pavilionaire]

"No income tax, no VAT, no money back, no guarantee..."

 

[Stinky Kat]

The Irish policy is very effective, that is why they are all here.

What is the Irish policy?

 

[chez]

I dislike them as much as everyone else - taxes, mess etc - but I think we have to realise that the number of sites on which to put them seems to diminish year on year. We're now at the point where they complain there is nowhere to go.

Yeah but if they treated places with more respect in the first place the sites wouldnt be diminishing.

 

[Sonic]

Are the police, security guards at shops and guadians of our society scared of travellers because the seem to break the law at will without any of the punishments the normal man in the street gets

There are various legal problems associated with travellers.

Firstly, there is often criminal damage caused to obtain access to the site, but unless the specific offender is known, you can't charge them for it. How many people who live next to sites where travellers set up are likely to go to the Police as a witness, and then follow them round the site until they can say 'Yes Officer, that's the man I saw with bolt-cutters'. I don't think anyone's balls are that big.

Once they are on a site, unfortunately there's procedure to follow and the land owner has to apply for a section 61 eviction notice. This always takes time, and in the meantime all of the previously mentioned associated problems rear their ugly heads.

The public are often quick to criticise the Police for not going in mob handed and turfing them off, but the safety of the officers has to be considered. It's no good sending in a dozen coppers, only to be confronted by 40 angry tooled-up travellers who give them a pasting. Regardless of whether they are the law enforcers or not, once they are outnumbered they are only putting themselves at risk. Yes they are paid to tackle difficult situations, but not to walk into an obviously dangerous situation which could result in them being hospitalised. They are no good to anyone whilst they are laid up recovering from a battering, and you can't just pull new officers out of thin air to replace them.

I personally think the law should be changed. The public and landowners are given no protection from these type of problems which inevitably result in damage and expense to innocent parties, and one some occasions lead to a short term increase of local crime.

 

[REDLAND]

f***ing hate Pikies.

Although I did have to laugh when I drove past the broadfield stadium in crawley this morning and they have hung their washing over the fench approaching the stadium and is visible form the roundabout.

I saw that as well..

 

[Billy the Fish]

The public are often quick to criticise the Police for not going in mob handed and turfing them off, but the safety of the officers has to be considered. It's no good sending in a dozen coppers, only to be confronted by 40 angry tooled-up travellers who give them a pasting. Regardless of whether they are the law enforcers or not, once they are outnumbered they are only putting themselves at risk. Yes they are paid to tackle difficult situations, but not to walk into an obviously dangerous situation which could result in them being hospitalised. They are no good to anyone whilst they are laid up recovering from a battering, and you can't just pull new officers out of thin air to replace them.

They managed it ok at football matches

 

[Dandyman]

Readingstockport's right, I think - this comes down to how individuals behave. I can only speak from my own experience of rural and semi-rural sites, which is that many travellers keep and leave their sites in good order (I'm primarily talking about unauthorised access here, haven't had much to do with authorised travellers' sites) and cause no problems to others in the vicinity, while some cause absolute mayhem and completely trash the place. From personal observation again, there's perhaps less trashing done by new age/hippy travellers than by the more established "traditional" travellers. I'm not sure this is an area in which it's either advisable or justified to extrapolate general rules from one or two specific cases.

What he said.

There seem to be a lot of people asserting universal truths from the anti-social habits of a few. Would people be happy for the NIMBYs to point to incidents like the Pump House all-comers chair throwing competition and paint all Albion supporters with the same brush ?