Police Commissioner Calls For Coordinated Approach to Traveller Incursions

Published on: 7 Sep, 2017
Updated on: 10 Sep, 2017

Unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller Encampment at Effingham Common last month (August 2017).

By Chris Dick

A call by Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), David Munro, for a coordinated approach to find a better solution to the issue of unauthorised Gypsy/ Romany/ Traveller (GRT) encampments in Surrey and nationwide has been praised by the GRT Forum.

And the commissioner has warned that the incursions should not: “be used as an excuse for intolerance, discrimination or hate crime towards this community.”

Munro has written to all PCCs across the country to seek their views regarding the provision and use of short stay transit sites and a review of the legislation governing the balance between travellers’ rights and those of settled communities.

In Surrey, he is meeting leaders from various borough councils to discuss transit sites. He is also looking to liaise directly with the GRT community and has asked Surrey Police to compile a report on the policing issues following recent unauthorised encampments in the county.

David Munro

PCC David Munro said: “I believe the time has come to look at a more coordinated approach to seek a better solution for all communities.

“We have seen a number of unauthorised incursions in Surrey over recent months which have caused considerable community tensions in some areas and put a strain on police resources.

“This can be a complex issue which often causes frustration for all concerned. I have heard from a number of people over the last few weeks about their recent experiences and I know unauthorised encampments can cause significant disruption to local residents and landowners.

“We must find a more productive path to lessen the impact on our local communities whilst at the same time seeking to meet the needs of the travelling community. There is a delicate balance to strike and I know we are not alone in Surrey in seeking a longer-term solution.

“Conversations about the best way forward need to take place at a national level and I have written to all my fellow PCCs across the country to seek their views and suggestions on how we can take positive steps forward.

“Policing alone cannot provide the complete answer and we must work more closely with local government and national bodies to come up with ways of meeting this challenge.

“I am particularly interested to hear about the use of transit sites that provide appropriate temporary stopping places for travellers with proper facilities which have worked well in some areas of the country.

“I am committed to helping challenge misconceptions around the GRT community. One of my primary aims in looking at this issue remains the safeguarding of those who are vulnerable.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that it remains completely unacceptable for any heightened tensions created by unauthorised encampments to be used as an excuse for intolerance, discrimination or hate crime towards this community.”

A spokesman for the Surrey GRT Forum said: “The initiative from the PCC David Munro was met with universal praise, as this issue desperately needs attention. Lack of permanent provision and temporary sites for GRT communities is a main contributor to unauthorised encampments that create so much tension and distress to everyone (GRT included).”

Recently the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has spoken on YouTube about lack of provision for the estimated 30,000 GRT in the London boroughs and made clear to the planners what he expects in tangible deliveries.

Responses to Police Commissioner Calls For Coordinated Approach to Traveller Incursions

Elizabeth Smith Reply

September 25, 2017 at 8:32 pm

Homelessness has a huge negative impact on my community, affecting families greatly. Many have no option but to travel because of the lack of permanent sites. For those that do have a permanent pitch, there’s no option to buy or to part-own and the electric and rent is overcharged when compared to the average household’s electric tariff and rent.

Few non-Gypsies understand our ethnic origins and I have met so many people who think if you don’t travel you can’t be an English Romany Gypsy or an Irish Traveller. For those of us who need or choose to travel, we are faced with so much discrimination.

We are often refused entry onto holiday camps and because it been made illegal to pitch on common lands and byways we are nowadays mostly viewed by the wider community as criminals. There are too few transits sites.

Homelessness affects our opportunities of applying for and receiving good health care and limits our children from having a good education. For Gypsies and Travellers who would like to be placed on the council waiting list to be housed its a “Catch 22” situation. I’ve known council officials refuse to place those from my community onto the homeless waiting list because they have a trailer (caravan).

I’ve written this because I have any faith that we will get any type of positive result from any meeting. Our lifestyle has been criminalised and our pleas fall on death ears.