Travellers 'want more say on sites'

Feb 4 2013

Local authorities should give Gypsy-Travellers a greater say in the location of new sites, a Holyrood committee has been told.

Councils in the north east tend to listen more to the views of settled communities while Travellers are "kicked aside and forgotten about", Holyrood's Equal Opportunities Committee heard.

The committee visited Aberdeen as it continues its inquiry into where Gypsy-Travellers in Scotland live.

Members were told that more permanent sites were needed in the north east to meet Traveller demand while problems with unauthorised encampments have caused tensions between the settled community and Traveller groups over the past few years.

During an evidence session at Clinterty Travelling Persons' Site, Donald Stewart, a member of the Travelling community, said: "Lots of Travellers come to Aberdeen, but Aberdeen has been ignoring the facts for a lot of years, and they're just being stubborn.

"We do need more sites and there is no doubt about that. Because the thing is they can fight against it, keep moving them on... but the problem will never stop until more sites are built."

He added: "The community, it always gets a say over the Travellers... they always go to the community, and the community gets their say... and we have got no say. We are just kicked aside and forgotten about."

Fellow Traveller Sammy Stewart said sites such as Clinterty were often located out of town, which meant Travellers were "not recognised enough".

"We get a lot of people coming out here... and they never knew that Clinterty existed," he said.

"We must be 13 miles from here to the town. A lot of Travellers don't get the right to say yes or no... a site just goes up and that's it. I think you should get Travellers' point of view where they want sites to go instead of just putting them up."