I wouldn't mind gipsies near me
FOREST planning chief Peter Amos says he would not object if officials tried to put a gipsy site on his doorstep.
The planning supremo is on the lookout for land to put up to six new small gipsy sites in the Forest.
But the Cabinet member for planning said he would not mind if officials earmarked land near his home in Broadoak for one of the sites needed to create a total of 26 caravan pitches.
"It would not bother me at all," he said. "I certainly would not be a Nimby.
"As a Christian I believe everyone has the right to live a happy and peaceful life and if it was decided the best place was next to where I live, I would not have any difficulty with that.
"Of course that's a personal point of view and I cannot speak for my neighbours or the people of Awre who I represent."
Coun Amos spoke out as he prepared to tour legal caravan sites past and present in a bid to find the extra pitches to meet government targets.
Cinderford residents are furious that part of the fact-finding mission will mean looking into the possibility of reopening the former Cinders site, which closed over a decade ago.
Coun Graham Morgan (Lab, Cinderford) challenged Coun Amos to put one of the gipsy sites in his own rural parish rather than the old mining town.
"That site was put there to take gipsies scattered in the woodlands around Cinderford," he said.
"Cinderford found housing for their gipsies a decade ago and they are now integrated in the local community and accepted.
"People lived in harmony until they put in a new lot from outside the area who attacked a local lad. There were reprisals, people started to take the law into their own hands and in the end they had to leave with a police escort for their own safety.
"Cinderford has done its bit and taken care of its own amicably and now it's time for other places to do the same. Newent should sort out its own problems, not try to dump them on Cinderford.
"I'd like to see Peter Amos playing his part by putting a site in his own parish."
Coun Morgan says Cinders is now a vital part of Linear Park and a local cycleway created with £500,000 regeneration money.
Coun Amos has pledged not to put travellers from the illegal site at Southend Lane in Newent into Crump Meadow, Cinderford.
But he says he could not exclude the land from plans to create a number of small sites instead of one big one because it is in public ownership.
He will also visit a Bristol site held up as a success story.
"If we go about it in the right way, I cannot see the people of the Forest of Dean turning their backs on people in genuine need," he said.
5 Comments
by Rebekah, Coventry
Saturday, January 16 2010, 8:00PM
“I'll tell you now, 80% of New Foresters have Romany roots. The proper Romany gypsies have been in the New Forest since before the 1700s!! Unlike the yuppies. My lot were the Hoskins and Egertons.”
by Travellers Roots, LYDNEY
Friday, June 26 2009, 10:11AM
“My family were travellers and my grandfather died at Crump Meadow.My parents and my brother and sisters lived in barral top caravan at Troy farm near the convent before the farmer my father worked for moved to Oxford and then they lived in house.The true gypsies like us are friendly people and look after the countryside not like some who are not true gypsies.”
by Venk Shenoi, Blaisdon Glos
Friday, June 26 2009, 8:27AM
“Well said Ellis from Staunton - the real Veristers were squatters but regrettably foreigners have moved in recent decades to create the idyll they imagined and did not have in the metropolitan cities where they came from. So the real Foresters and I count myself as one need to reclaim our true heritage.”
by Ellis, Staunton Coleford
Friday, June 26 2009, 7:07AM
“A victorian curate came to the conclusion that Forestors had..The build of the welsh, temper of the pagan pirates,
colouring of the gypsy and the work ethic of an ant.
True Forestors should trace their family trees, they may get a surprise, or a huge shock horror, when they fnd themselves with the same ancestry as those they are now berating.”
by Venk Shenoi, Blaisdon Glos
Thursday, June 25 2009, 8:38AM
“Councils have a duty to make provision for Gypsies with their different lifestyles as for the settled community in the 2004 housing Act. So caught sleeping. The criteria for housing land are no different and needs to take into account - affordability and proximity to services and amenities same as for settled communities - so not second best. Shuning Gypsies to unsuitable locations will not work. Government is bringing Gypsy/traveller sites within the mobile homes legislation and the council also needs to earmark emergency sites for those who appear out of the blue. The resentment of settled communities to a different lifestyle is understandable but much of the misunderstanding arises because of perceptions that Gypsies are favoured over settled communities - council needs to act a little smarter, be open and transparent and explain their legal obligations and limitations of planning law before making headline grabbing statements of their intentions. Councillors need to lead through explaining the complex legal situation in simple terms. There are many way-out lifestyles tolerated in Britain which is rightly the most tolerant place on earth - however when it comes to Gypsy lifestyles there is a historic block. Often it is the fear of rhe unknown or historic misconceptions.”