The funds for the sites, although is a big question mark. Mike Evans, responsible for Gypsy and traveller liaison in Dorset, says, “With the new Government cancelling the RSS plan and the budget for the sites it is difficult to say if it’ll happen, but there is no ignoring the fact that there is a huge requirement for sites. At the local level we can only look for prospective sites but without financial backing from the centre there is nothing else we can do.”
The Graphs on the right show that according to 2009 figures from the DCLG, two thirds of traveller families live on legal sites and in permanent housing but there is still a dire need for more pitches.
England needs at least 8,000 new pitches in the next sixteen years. The Government's cutting down on site funding will see more people on the road and an increase in illegal encampments. Gema, a New Age Traveller from Brighton Hove, who also works with Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) said that council provided sites were accessible for only a few months in the year and the rest of the time it was shut for refurbishment or development, which again left travellers in a lurch. This resulted in illegal encampments in near by areas. “We live on a farmers land and pay him some rent every month but when we first arrived there people were scared of us. They got a bucket and said ‘put all your needles in this’ which we found very demeaning.”
The Meriden green belt is an area facing a problem of illegal development. When the Travellers are left with no where to go, force is their last resort and friction in society the result. With the planning application on a traveller owned site in Meriden now rejected the Gypsies have 28 days to appeal it. They have promised to protest if their plea for land isn’t heard. Noah Burton, owner of the land said, ”I have grown up in Solihull as a kid and so are my children now, yet no one has asked about my needs as a Gypsy. All we want is a place to call home and not be pushed from pillar to post.”