York

Supporting the local traveller community

August 4th, 2012
Alysia Judge
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With its leafy parks, historic churches and open fields, York offers a plethora of stunning sights for the York motorist. However, as you’re cruising down Field Lane, the statuesque beauty of Heslington East will often not be the only thing reflected in your rear-view mirror.

Traveller horses are a common sight by York’s roadsides, their tails swishing as they munch on kerbside grass. Their presence is widely recognised as a major issue, alongside the ongoing struggle to provide hospitable sites for their owners currently living on the three overcrowded traveller sites in Osbaldwick, James Street and Clifton. Built on the remnants of industrial estates, the sites are prone to vermin infestation posing a severe risk to the well-being of their inhabitants.

The City of York Council is now looking to tap into a £12.1 million fund (established to support the improvement of traveller pitches) for the benefit of the community. The aim is to support gypsy and traveller families who are currently waiting for sites to become available as they wait in a vulnerable position on the interim.

The repository financing the developments, The Traveller Pitch Fund, is part of a long held commitment from the government to provide sites for gypsy and traveller communities who want to preserve the traditional way of life.

Cllr Tracey Simpson-Laing, cabinet member for Health, housing and Adult Social Services commented: “Government has a long-held housing policy to support the development and improvement of traveller pitches; to facilitate the traditional way of life of travellers while respecting the interests of the settled community” and that the council intends to “deliver tangible benefits to the York gypsy and traveller community and the communities they reside in, whilst cutting down on council enforcement, environmental and management costs.

The bidding round for the next round of Traveller Pitch Funding is now open. The council will be bidding for this funding in September and the first round of allocation decisions will be made in October 2012.

  • FelicityK

    Seriously- using a ‘glamping’ image to represent travellers is unforgivable. Have some respect.

  • FelicityK

    Seriously- using a ‘glamping’ image to represent travellers is unforgivable. Have some respect.

    • FranF

      @FelicityK
      I don’t think it is a ‘glamping’ image, thanks for bringing up the poxy neologism though. I struggle to see what you find offensive about the image, let alone what you find so offensive as to brand the usage ‘unforgivable’. I’m sure the author of this article couldn’t care less about your bloated and reactionary opinions, let alone your forgiveness. By ‘have some respect’ do you mean ‘not report on the travellers in York’, do you mean ‘only report nice things’? This article is about breaking the cycle of poverty, violence and unemployment by funding education programmes. I fail to see how the image above it is of more concern to you?
       

      • FranM

         @FranF I think they just mean that by using an image of what is very clearly not a traveller site but what looks more like a photo shoot for a Sunday Times article on taking the kids to Cornwall to stay in a fashionable camp site during the summer hols. It’s great to report on the travelling community, and I agree with you that it’s not ‘unforgivable’, it doesn’t seem to be ‘bloated’ or ‘reactionary’, I think you miss the point. The image does however show a bit of a lack of respect to the subject in what is after all a news item.  

        • FranF

           @FranM I don’t miss points. Why would FelicityK’s main concern be the image used? Why would she take offence on behalf of someone else? Would you rather it show white van and squalor? Perhaps someone being paid cash in hand instead of making NI contributions or tax? These are various things people associate with Travellers. 

        • FranM

           @FranF Well I don’t know why FelicityK is offended, she may be from the travelling community for all I know. The issue being discussed, as far as I see it, on this thread is the misrepresentation of a community with clichéd images of some pastoral ideal which are as unhelpful as your own, admittedly sarcastic suggestions. It’s just important to accurately represent issues in the media in visual as well as written form, and no this doesn’t mean an over the top offensive caricature of the negative extremes of any community, but rather an accurate reflection of the truth; which in this case is neither a bucolic scene as pictured or a scene of utter deprivation.  

        • FranF

           @FranM The helpfulness of representation aside, this is not the real issue. The problem is when ignorant and righteous people step in and make comments like @felecityK did. Where her opinion was bloated was because it is puffed with the energy of someone who has tried to take the high ground. To be offended on the behalf of the travellers. Even if she were a traveller herself, she does not speak for everyone. Her opinion was reactionary because it took to heart the most meaningless part of the article. So what if the author has some silly idea about what images to use?

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