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Social barriers faced by Roma, Gypsies and Travellers laid bare in equality survey

British community study finds groups experiencing high levels of poor health, racist assault, job insecurity and deprivation

The barriers which Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people face in modern Britain have been laid bare in unprecedented survey data, which reveals extremely high levels of racial assault, poor health, precarious employment and socioeconomic deprivation.

The figures were recorded as part of the Evidence for Equality National Survey (Evens) of ethnic and religious minorities, which included the largest number of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller participants in any national survey to date.

The research found that 62% of Gypsy or Traveller people had experienced a racial assault . The percentage exceeded that for any other ethnic minority group. One in three experienced a physical racist attack.

Of Roma people, 47% had experienced a racist assault, while 35% had been physically attacked.

The survey also revealed shocking health disparities between Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people and the rest of the population. Gypsy or Traveller men were 12.4 times as likely to suffer from two or more physical health conditions than white British men, while Roma men were five times as likely – both were higher figures than for any other ethnicity.

Access to health and social care services was found to be a larger issue for Roma people than any other ethnic group, who were 2.5 times more at risk of not having access than the white British population.

The survey also found that people from Roma, Gypsy and Traveller ethnic groups experienced the highest levels of socioeconomic deprivation. About 51% of Gypsy Travellers and 55% of Roma had no educational qualifications. They were also less likely to be in the highest occupational positions, and also had high rates of financial difficulties and benefit receipts.

Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people were also among the least likely of ethnic groups to be in employment, and when they did have jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic they were the most likely to be in precarious employment. After adjusting for age, 85% of Gypsy or Traveller men and 65% of Roma men were in precarious employment, compared with 19% of white British men.

The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and undertaken by the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity, in collaboration with community groups and charities. To reach such high numbers of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people, academics trained and employed six Roma and Traveller researchers to go out and record responses from community members.

Sarah Mann, director at Friends, Families and Travellers, said: “We are hugely proud of and grateful to the Romany, Roma and Traveller people that came forward and took part in the Evidence for Equality National Survey, the largest ever participation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community members in a survey.

“As the data shows, the devastating experiences of people from Romany, Roma and Traveller communities are no longer just anecdotal. The racism, hate, discrimination, and gross marginalisation across the board is actively damaging Romany, Traveller and Roma people’s life chances.

“The government needs to listen to Romany, Traveller and Roma people, and concrete steps must be taken so that everyone can live healthy lives with dignity, respect, and free from hate.”

Prof Nissa Finney, who led the project, said: “Evens allows us to compare the pandemic experiences of Roma and Traveller people to other ethnic groups, which hasn’t been possible before now. The disadvantage that we’ve found with the data is striking.

“Rigorous, robust, reliable data like that in Evens is essential for designing appropriate and effective policies and interventions. There’s still work to do to improve data and data collection – marginalised communities can be mistrustful of research and of its ability to bring change.

“A clear message from our study is the need for political commitment to better monitoring and measurement of the full range of ethnic groups. This is how we’ll make visible in evidence and policy those people who have been invisible.”

• Roma, Gypsies and Travellers
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#NotMyBill solidarity rally for Gypsy Traveller League organisation

On Saturday, a wide range of campaign and direct action groups supported the Gypsy Traveller League under the banner #NotMyBill , as they handed a letter in to Downing Street calling for an end to discrimination.

The recently passed Public Order Act is the latest of several rounds of legislation which widen the suppression of marginalised groups.

New laws give police greater powers over Traveller encampments, but at the same time common land is fast disappearing into private hands with no provision for Gypsy and Traveller culture and lifestyle. Suicide rates in the community are rocketing.

Meanwhile, draconian new legislation last year targeted refugees and asylum seekers, groups which have long been demonised by the billionaire-owned press. More recently, climate activists are described as ‘zealots’ and ‘mobs’, leading a few weeks ago to the passing of anti-protest legislation, which was almost immediately used by the police against completely peaceful protesters at the Coronation.

The result though is a pushback from new networks of solidarity, and on Saturday we saw Black Lives Matter pledging support for the Gypsy and Traveller community alongside disabled activists, republicans, animal rights and climate protesters, Just Stop Oil , fuel poverty campaigners, and many others, all pledging to ‘Unite To Defy’ and fight back against this authoritarian and anti-democratic power grab.

Graham Smith, the CEO of Republic , was arrested at the Coronation by officers from the Metropolitan Police, despite weeks of negotiation and agreement over his plans to protest peacefully. He called for their abolishment and replacement by Community Policing outside of government control, and he warned that repression of protest would only force people to take other actions, effectively radicalising campaigners.

This is what we’re seeing in other countries.

After the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a nationwide ban on climate group Letze Generation (under Section 129 of the Criminal Code), the Bavarian LKA police force raided homes across Germany, the website was taken down, and supporters were warned that donating to a criminal organisation was a serious offence.

But in an enormous backfire of public support, the group quickly re-instated their website, received around half a million Euros in donations over the next few days, and some ‘mainstream’ media outlets actually publicised upcoming slow march protests.

Now that in the UK a wider demographic are beginning to experience the sort of repression which Gypsy and Traveller communities, asylum seekers, Black and brown people and those with disabilities have suffered for years, Saturday’s event could be the start of new relationships and solidarity, and a stronger movement to resist.

Supporters of the event included the following:

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Home > News

Supreme Court rules wide injunctions have negative impact on Gypsies and Travellers' ability to pursue traditional nomadic way of life

Wednesday 29 november 2023.

Stephanie Harrison KC

Marc Willers KC

Tessa Buchanan

Owen Greenhall

Stephen Clark

Fatima Jichi

Marc willers kc , tessa buchanan and owen greenhall , of the  garden court chambers romani gypsy and traveller rights  team, represented london gypsies and travellers (lgt), friends families and travellers (fft) and the derbyshire gypsy liaison group (dglg), with richard drabble kc of landmark chambers. they were instructed by chris johnson of community law partnership (clp)., stephanie harrison kc , stephen clark and fatima jichi , of the garden court chambers protest rights team , represented friends of the earth (foe,) interveners in the case, instructed by hodge jones & allen and in-house legal specialists. human rights organisation liberty also intervened in the case., share this page, email this page.

Between 2015 and 2020 numerous local authorities had obtained wide injunctions against persons unknown prohibiting unauthorised camping on public land in their localities – some going so far as to prohibit camping on all public land in their boroughs and districts. In the case of Bromley London Borough Council v Persons Unknown [2020] EWCA Civ 12, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court to refuse a borough wide injunction and laid down guidance on the steps that a local authority should take before seeking such an injunction, making the point that such an injunction should only be sought as a last resort.

Following that decision the High Court reviewed wide injunctions that had been obtained by other local authorities. The High Court discharged a number of them, having concluded that it had no power to make a final injunction which would bind persons unknown (or ‘newcomers’, that is persons who were not party to the injunction proceedings) - in reliance upon a decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of Canada Goose UK Retail Ltd v Persons Unknown [2020] EWCA Civ 303 case.

The local authorities appealed against that decision and the Court of Appeal allowed their appeal having concluded that final injunctions could, as a matter of principle, be granted against newcomers.

London Gypsies and Travellers (LGT), Friends Families and Travellers (FFT) and the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group (DGLG) had been granted permission to intervene in the proceedings before the High Court and the Court of Appeal. They were then granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of Appeal on the question whether final injunctions could be granted against newcomers.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal having concluded that injunctions, whether described as interim or final, could, as a matter of principle, be granted against newcomers but for different reasons than those given by the Court of Appeal. Essentially, the Supreme Court considered that newcomer injunctions were an equitable remedy that ought to be available to the Court in appropriate cases where other remedies available are inadequate to vindicate or protect the rights in issue.

However, importantly, the Supreme Court recognised the effect that such injunctions had upon the ability of Gypsies and Travellers to live their traditional nomadic way of life, not least because of the continuing lack of caravan site provision [paras 74-78]. The Supreme Court also noted the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Bromley case [para 90-95] and the guidance that it gave on the approach to be adopted by a local authority seeking a wide injunction and a Court determining such an application.

The Supreme Court then built upon the decision in Bromley and helpfully gave its own guidance on the grant of newcomer injunctions which prohibited unauthorised camping by Gypsies and Travellers [see paras 187-234 and the summary at para 238 (iv)].

It should be noted that in doing so the Supreme Court stated there should be strict limits on the length and geographical scope of any newcomer injunction which prohibited unauthorised camping by Gypsies and Travellers. In para 225 the Supreme Court stated that “We have considerable doubt as to whether it could ever be justifiable to grant a Gypsy or Traveller injunction which is directed to persons unknown, including newcomers, and extends over the whole borough or for significantly more than a year. It is to be remembered that this is an exceptional remedy, and it must be a proportionate response to the unlawful activity to which it is directed. Further we consider that an injunction which extends borough-wide is likely to leave the Gypsy and Traveller communities with little or no room for manoeuvre, just as Coulson LJ warned might well be the case (see generally, Bromley, paras 99-109).”  

Significantly, when LGT, FFT and DGLG were granted permission to appeal they were also granted protective costs order (PCO) by the Supreme Court. The grant of a PCO is a novel feature of the case and potentially creates a blueprint for other charities seeking to take part in future newcomer injunction proceedings.

Marc Willers KC of Garden Court Chambers, lead counsel in the case, stated:

“The Supreme Court’s decision emphasises that wide injunctions which prohibit Gypsies and Travellers from camping on public land have a negative impact on their ability to pursue their traditional nomadic way of life and that they should only be sought and granted in exceptional circumstances, with strict limits on their length and geographical scope and after local authorities have complied with guidance laid down in the judgment." "Significantly, the Supreme Court said that it had ‘considerable doubt as to whether it could ever be justifiable to grant a Gypsy or Traveller injunction which is directed to persons unknown, including newcomers, and extends over the whole borough or for significantly more than a year.' and recognised that 'an injunction which extends borough-wide is likely to leave the Gypsy and Traveller communities with little or no room for manoeuvre’.”

Although the Supreme Court today did not uphold the appeal, it recognised the rights of Gypsy and Traveller communities to maintain their nomadic way of life, and made important findings which limit the basis for making these injunctions, making it more difficult for them to be used against these communities. The Court also provided guidance which will limit the scope of the injunctions and is likely to prevent them from operating across entire boroughs and for indefinite periods of time. This is highly significant for the injunctions currently in place, given the breadth of land that many of them cover, and the fact that they will be coming up for review by the courts.

However, these constraints do not apply to protest-related injunctions, and the Court ruled that persons unknown injunctions can continue to be used against people who were not involved in the activity or protest that was the target of the original injunction, meaning that environmental protestors continue to be at risk from this parallel system of criminal justice.

Abbie Kirkby, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Friends, Families and Travellers said this about the discriminatory nature of the wide injunctions:

“We have been determined to challenge the discriminatory and disproportionate use of these injunctions, used to target Gypsy and Traveller families who have nowhere else to stop. This is just one of the very many prohibitive approaches and eviction powers used to target Travellers and it’s key that the Supreme Court recognises the significance of the lack of site provision and the need for 'compelling justification’ for such an order to be sought and granted by the Court. We see this as a shot across the bows to local authorities – that their hostile approaches to Traveller communities will not go unchecked.”

Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer at Friends of the Earth, which supported the legal challenge over concerns that ‘persons unknown’ injunctions are increasingly being used against environmental protesters, as well as targeting already marginalised Gypsy and Traveller communities, said:

“As an environmental justice organisation, Friends of the Earth is proud to have intervened in support of this important appeal challenging the use of draconian, ‘borough-wide’ injunctions targeting Gypsy and Traveller communities. Although the appeal was rejected, there are positive aspects that will make it harder for local authorities to obtain these sorts of injunctions in relation to these communities."

FFT, LGT and DGLG were represented by Chris Johnson of Community Law Partnership (CLP),  Marc Willers KC ,  Tessa Buchanan  and  Owen Greenhall  of Garden Court Chambers, and Richard Drabble KC of Landmark Chambers. Friends of the Earth (FoE,) interveners in the case, were represented by Stephanie Harrison KC, Stephen Clark and Fatima Jichi, instructed by Hodge Jones & Allen and in-house legal specialists. Human Rights organisation Liberty also intervened in the case.

Marc Willers KC, Tessa Buchanan and Owen Greenhall are members of the  Garden Court Chambers Romani Gypsy and Traveller Rights team . Stephanie Harrison KC, Stephen Clark and Fatima Jichi are members of the  Garden Court Chambers Protest Rights Team .

Click here to read the judgment .

Click here to read Friends Families and Travellers (FFT) press release.

Click here to read Friend of the Earth's (FoE) press release.

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Nowhere left to turn

• We are all so many things...

Local campaigns

We are londoners too, we still count.

People from the Gypsy and Traveller community can make their voices heard by taking part in our campaigns challenging discrimination and poor policy making. Below are details of recent campaigns. For more information about our current campaigns and how to get involved, p lease contact [email protected]

LGT is running a campaign to highlight the way that draconian laws have eroded the lives and culture of Gypsies and Travellers, and how the introduction of the new Police Act is effectively criminalising the lives of nomadic people – leaving them with nowhere to turn.

Over many decades, local authorities have failed to fulfil their legal responsibilities to provide authorised family pitches or sites for Gypsies and Travellers – places where families can feel safe and get on with the business of living rather than being constantly moved on.

The “Nowhere left to turn” campaign is calling on local policy makers to act to address these issues.

We are all so many things…

This community-led campaign aims to challenge public perceptions of Gypsies and Travellers, asking why people only ever see their ethnicity, not their worth. The poster and social media campaign demonstrate that the reality of Gypsies and Travellers’ lives is a far cry from the caricatured images presented in the news media and television programmes such as My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding .

The campaign centres around five images of Gypsies and Travellers, highlighting the many roles they play in their lives – and asks the question: “We are all so many things… so why only pick on one?”

Romani Gypsies and Irish Travellers are recognised as ethnic groups under the Race Relations Act 1976, and they are protected by the Equality Act 2010. But prejudice and discrimination are still rife, affecting access to services, jobs and accommodation. Negative media coverage increases feelings of isolation.

The campaign was launched at an event hosted at City Hall in March 2017  and has since been showcased as part of numerous exhibitions, conferences and festivals in London and beyond. Mena Mongan, the leading spokesperson for the campaign, has actively promoted its message through interviews and speeches.

LGT continues to look for widespread support for the campaign, from community members to civil society, politicians and the wider public.

It is asking supporters to download and print campaign posters and put them up in local schools, GP surgeries, community centres and cafes.

Download the posters and postcards from our Resources page

Read the press release

LGT supports Gypsies and Travellers to start their own campaigns to defend their rights and have their needs recognised. In the face of shortages of local authority sites and neglect of existing sites, local communities often need to press for places to live and basic facilities. LGT supports them to do so.

The “We are Londoners too” campaign started in 2009 in response to the new London Plan that was being produced by Boris Johnson. The plan failed to treat Gypsies and Travellers in the same way as any other Londoner in need of secure accommodation.

The Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs assessment commissioned by the London Boroughs in 2008 provided evidence of the need for 811 new pitches by 2017. This was meant to be the basis of targets for new pitches, just as there were general housing provision targets in the London Plan. However, throughout the different rounds of consultation on the policy, targets were reduced and then removed altogether.

London Gypsies and Travellers produced leaflets giving information about the London Plan for Gypsies and Travellers, and postcards to sign and send back to the Mayor.

We held meetings and visited families living across London, encouraging them to write letters to the Mayor saying why more pitches are needed. 

We provided a response to the London Plan and liaised with other agencies who supported Travellers or who were involved with the London Plan, through the London Gypsy and Traveller Forum (LGTF).

By the end of the second consultation period nearly half of all the responses from the public on the London Plan were from Gypsies and Travellers.

But we were still not being heard. In July 2010 the Mayor said that it should be up to the boroughs to decide if new sites are needed. Gypsies and Travellers agreed that it was now time to protest.

A demonstration, with a silent protest in the public Gallery of City Hall, a rally at City Hall, and a March down Tooley Street, was held on October 11 th .  About 80 Gypsies, Travellers and supporters stood in the public gallery in silent protest. The planning inspector acknowledged the protest and allowed a statement to be read out followed by a minute’s silence.

Through our policy work and the London Gypsy and Traveller Forum we monitored the provision of Traveller sites and the accommodation needs of the community, gathering a strong evidence base and putting forward proposals for a better London Plan policy.

Some of these were taken on board by Mayor Sadiq Khan in his new Draft London Plan, with positive steps forward to ensure the recognition of all Gypsies and Travellers. However, the proposed policy on Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs strengthening.

Ten years later, the campaign message “We are Londoners too” was used again at City Hall to reinforce the demands of the Traveller community for a fairer policy. Almost 1000 postcards were signed and posted by Gypsies and Travellers in response to the London Plan consultation. Community members made their voices heard at London Gypsy and Traveller Forum meetings and at the examination hearing on 15 th  February 2019.

Our “We still count” campaign started in October 2014 responding to the Government’s proposed changes to the definition of Gypsies and Travellers in planning policy. The new definition only included those who could prove they were travelling for work – thus excluding the majority.

Through the use of short films, a  dedicated Facebook page  and a postcard campaign, we mobilised community members to have their say in the government’s consultation.

Phase 2 of the campaign focused on the detrimental changes in the Housing and Planning Bill. We joined a wider coalition of groups in a “Kill the Housing Bill” campaign. This included a London demonstration on 13 th  March 2016.

London Gypsies and Travellers produced  submissions on the proposed changes  to planning policy for Traveller sites and presented evidence to the Public Bill Committee on the Housing and Planning Bill.

After the new planning definition and Housing and Planning Act were adopted, LGT continued to challenge these changes through liaising with local councils and the GLA to seek that all Travellers’ needs are properly counted.

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Why Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities need our support

51 years ago, in April 1971, Romany activists and their supporters gathered in Kent and a stateless nation was born. For the first time in our history, Europe’s Romany people, often referred to as Gypsies, adopted an anthem and a flag, and re-affirmed a steely determination to improve the living conditions of our people.

Friends of the Earth was founded in the same year, and the struggles to preserve biological and social diversity have been intimately linked ever since. Our flag represents the sky we all live under, the earth that sustains us all and the chakra that represents our ancestral connection to India and our ongoing journey.

The policing bill and Romany people

But this April we won’t just be celebrating the gains Romany people have made in being increasingly well-educated and integrated. We will also be redoubling our efforts to defend our culture, because this spring the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill will become law. Part Three of the Bill will bring in sweeping powers to restrict peaceful protest, and Part Four is a direct assault on the traditional way of life of Gypsy and Traveller communities.

When it’s passed, Part Four of the bill will establish a new offence of criminal trespass with "intent to reside", with fines of up to £2,500 along with the seizure of homes and imprisonment. It has huge implications for anyone needing to defend and live on land they may not be fortunate enough to technically own, from eco-activists to Gypsies and Travellers.

At exactly the time when we should all be connecting more deeply with the landscape, the government will have passed legislation allowing the police to rip us from it.

Ruthless removal

We know that if humanity is to survive many more centuries on planet earth, it must see itself as part of nature, not separate to it. Yet across the world, those very communities that embody a sense of belonging to nature are still being ruthlessly removed from the landscape. On every inhabited continent, communities with an intimate connection to the land are still being harassed, persecuted and marginalized when they should be being cherished. And you don’t need to go as far as the Amazon to find them.

When members of my community, the Romany Gypsy community of Britain, pull onto a piece of land they do not own, we are simply following our way of life as nomads. When we move onto land, we are continuing a journey that started in the Indian sub-continent over 1,000 years ago. For centuries Romany people moved through the landscapes of Europe, Asia and North Africa, bringing the goods and services of the commercial nomad with them. From metalsmithing to horse dealing, entertainment and even fortune telling, we had a symbiotic relationship with the natural and human communities we passed through.

Now, as we park our caravans, we know it’s only a matter of time before they come. Whether it’s the police, bailiffs or vigilantes, we know there will be no welcome. No matter how it’s phrased, the conversation inevitably boils down to the matter of when we will be leaving. The endless cycle of trespass and eviction will begin once again. As soon as we are gone from one place, we know we’ll soon be asked to move on from the next.

Humanity at a crossroads

Today just a small percentage of western European Romany communities still travel, and the 2022 policing bill looks set to end even that last vestige of nomadic life in Britain. Increasingly, many of the arguments for banishing us are often environmental; in planning permission battles, Gypsy caravans are deemed to look detrimental to the places they stop.

We are now judged alien to a landscape we have long been part of. We know the greatest environmental crimes by far aren't committed by the small minority that litter or those that have caravans. From HS2 to roadbuilding schemes, we've long seen that those who legally own land are often its worst custodians. Now that climate change has brought humanity to a crossroads where we must urgently change our ways, perhaps it’s not too late to see that the greatest Romany contribution to human survival is a world view that we are part of the natural world and not superior to it.

So as the policing bill becomes the Police Act, it’s essential that the bonds that have been forged between environmentalists, minority communities and human rights activists are strengthened. Together we can challenge the Bill we couldn’t defeat by seeking to make the most repressive aspects of the Police Act unenforceable.

This April, the broad coalition of civic society that opposed the bill has called a solidarity day to signal its ongoing support of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities as the bill becomes law.

With the challenges to come, we will need allies from across civil society to enjoy and defend our common home.

For more information on "Drive 2 Survive", the Gypsy and Traveller-led campaign against the policing bill, visit www.drive2survive.org.uk

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Grass-roots Traveller-led charity set to tackle mental health and suicide

A brand new Traveller-led charity is set to tackle mental health among the Gypsy and Traveller communities and is kicking off its campaign with a seven-aside football and pool competition in the south and south east of England.

The Gypsy and Traveller League (GTL), led by Travellers, but which includes non-Travellers and a Catholic Priest as the treasurer, has already been busy by starting a website, a Facebook group and has been visiting charities, including the Traveller Movement and Bell Farm Christian Centre, to get support for their ambitious project.

The GTL are also holding a ‘launch event’ on Friday, 1st of April during a Medjugorje Mass at Our Lady of the Visitation Church, Greenford, 7.30pm. The address for the church is 358 Greenford Road, Greenford, West London, UB6 9AN, and all are welcome to come and find out more, say the GTL organisers.

“We have a Team who just have started an organisation called "GTL" for Gypsies and Travellers who are dealing with mental health & suicide in are community,” say the organisers of the Mass. “Please don’t miss out on this opportunity to meet these lovely young people.”

Speaking to the Travellers’ Times, GTL organiser John Reilly said that he hoped that the competitions would bring members of the Travelling community together in their love of sport and would also push the message “Changing Your Mindset” to improve your own mental health and to support your friends and family’s mental health. He added that one of the motivations of the GTL organisers was to tackle the “terrible” rate of suicide among young Gypsies and Travellers. The GTL would also be including sports and activities for young Gypsy and Traveller women in the future once the football league and pool competition had kicked off, said John Reilly.

The football and pool competitions are open to 18 years and older.

Looking to the future, the GTL charity would also provide employment training and courses, such as paving and beauty care, and become far more than just about sport said John Reilly.

"At the moment we are mainly Travellers," said John Reilly. "But we are reaching out to the Romany Gypsy community to come and get involved as well. This is about improving the mental health and well-being of all our communities."

The Travellers’ Times will be popping along to the Mass on April 1st to find out more.

The GTL football league will be seven-aside and several teams have already signed up. Slots on the pool competition are also filling up. The organisers are keen to hear from more teams who may want to join in.

To find out more please go to the GTL website by clicking on this link HERE: Gypsytravellerleaugue or by joining their Facebook Group here: (20+) Gypsy Traveller League | Facebook or direct by email and telephone at [email protected] / 07424249595

Mike Doherty for TT News

(Main picture: GTL visit the Traveller Movement office to get support for their sports and mental health project. Left to Right: Jamal (GTL), Greg (TM), John (GTL), Jenni, Sabrina, Maureen (all TM), Tony (GTL), and Anna (TM))

If you are affected by poor mental health talk to your friends and family and/or call The Samaritans in confidence.

“Whatever you're going through, a Samaritan will face it with you. We're here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

Call 116 123 for free to talk to a Samaritan volunteer.

Have your say on the proposed permanent Gypsy and Traveller settlement in Branksome Wood, Poole

Source: Google Maps

Read more about the proposed site for the settled Gypsy and Traveller community in BCP's draft Local Plan, on pages 95-97, 325, 327

Proposed traveller site in branksome triangle, poole.

• Current Permanent Gypsy and Traveller Site Proposal in Branksome Triangle, Poole
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I love Bournemouth. It has been my home for well over a decade and it is the honour of my life to represent you. But recently, our town has lost its shine. 

Branksome Triangle: Proposed 'Settled Gypsy & Traveller Community' site update

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Branksome Triangle - as it's known locally - in Poole is the site identified by BCP Council to host a permanent 'settled gypsy and traveller community location'.

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‘professional outside agitators’ behind illegal takeover of columbia university academic building: nypd.

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NYPD brass and Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday blamed outside agitators for the illegal takeover of an academic building at Columbia University as officials urged the Ivy League student protesters to call it quits.

“This is to serve their own agenda,” Adams said of the outside group at a Tuesday press conference. “They’re not here to promote peace, unity, allow a peaceful display in one voice, but they are here to create discord and divisiveness.”

“We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose. We cannot wait until this situation becomes even more serious,” the mayor said.

The NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism unit first realized they were dealing with the antagonistic mob when dozens of agitators stormed into Hamilton Hall in the middle of the night Tuesday — a significant escalation of the anti-Israel student encampment protest.

“We are seeing the tactics changing in a way that is endangering public safety,” said NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban. “These once-peaceful protests are being exploited by professional outside agitators. The safety of all students, faculty, and staff are now a concern.”

The group early Tuesday violently broke into the building — which they dubbed “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the Middle Eastern conflict — and used metal barricades, tables, chairs and other materials to seal themselves inside.

One  shocking video  captured a hammer-wielding demonstrator smashing through a glass-paneled door and placing what appeared to be a bike lock around its handles, and another image showed a man brawling with a campus security guard.

The group also broke cameras, scaled walls and were seen tossing the school’s property out the window.

One of the agitators was identified as Lisa Fithian — a professional protester who has been raising hell across the country across a myriad of movements since the 1970s.

“These protests have been and are being influenced by external actors who are unaffiliated with the university — some who have been known to our department and others for many years for their dangerous, destructive and at times criminal activity associated with protests,” said Rebecca Ulam Weiner, the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism.

Several of the rioters were also reported to the NYPD by Columbia, which recognized they were not affiliated with the prestigious school.

The NYPD worries that the dozens of agitators are instructing peaceful student protesters to follow their lead.

“We think these tactics are a result of guidance that’s being given to students from some of these external actors,” Ulam Weiner said.

“This is an escalation that violence began last night at Columbia. We do expect it to continue — not in one building on one campus but to other protests to other universities, and to other cities. We are in constant dialogue with Columbia University officials as well as other partners, and we are as always fully prepared to respond.”

Caban emphasized that the NYPD would step in to clear out the agitators if the university asks for help, similar to when it helped clear out the tent city when it was first erected.

If the NYPD moves in, the Hamilton Hall occupiers would be charged with third-degree burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing, officials said.

Those still on the campus lawn — despite Columbia’s warnings to vacate by 2 p.m. Monday — will be hit with trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

In the meantime, Adams urged students to distance themselves from the violent group before it was too late.

“If you are a parent or guardian of a student, please call your child and urge them to leave the area before the situation escalates in any way. This is for their own safety and for the safety of others. These external actors are obviously not students, and their presence on campus is a violation of Columbia’s clearly stated policy,” Adams said.

Caban added: “To the parents, and I say this as a father of a college student myself. Be aware of where your children are. Be aware of what they’re involved in. If you don’t know, reach out to them, The University and the NYPD or are taking the situation seriously. You should be taking the situation seriously too.”

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