Land-use Planning and Traveller-Gypsies: Towards Non-prejudicial Practice

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Notes

1. PPS1 notes that planning policies should ‘take into account the needs of all the community, including particular requirements relating to age, sex, ethnic background, religion, disability or income’ (ODPM, 2005a, para. 16).

2. Section 2 of the RTPI Code of Professional Conduct notes that: ‘In all their professional activities members shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, creed, religion, disability or age and shall seek to eliminate such discrimination by others and to promote equality of opportunity’ (RTPI, 2007b, p. 2).

3. This generic term is used to refer to a range of groups having a variety of ethnic and lifestyle characteristics, all of which follow, to differing degrees, a nomadic way of life. This covers a range of ethnic groups, including English Romani Gypsies and Travellers, Welsh Gypsies, Scottish Traveller-Gypsies, Irish Travellers; ‘New Age’ Travellers and smaller groups of Roma from Central and Eastern Europe. Gypsies (since 1988, as a result of CRE v Dutton) and Irish Travellers (since 2000, as a result of O'Leary and others v Allied Domecq) have both been recognized by the courts as being distinct ethnic groups, and as such have the full protection of the Race Relations Act, with Irish Travellers being specifically identified in the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 (article 5).

4. The primary geographic focus here is the United Kingdom, although the discussion does have direct relevance to other planning systems, particularly the Irish Republic. It is appreciated that the various planning jurisdictions in the United Kingdom have adopted differentiated policy approaches to Traveller-Gypsies and host a variety of groups associated with this term. However, broadly similar institutional responses to these nomadic groups facilitate a justifiable generalization to be made in this discussion.

5. It is recognized here that the term ‘exclusion’ does have specific implications in the case of nomadic groups such as Traveller-Gypsies, as noted by Sibley (1998), in that their peripherality has an ambiguity—in that on the one hand it reflects the power of the State and the dominant society but on the other is preferred by the group as a way on maintaining cultural boundaries whilst providing certain economic advantages. In this sense Sibley notes that they should not be regarded as being ‘excluded’, but rather as ‘transgressive’.

6. For example, an Irish Traveller, Johnny Delaney was murdered in a racist vigilante attack in Liverpool in 2003. Available at www.kirkbytimes.co.uk/news_items/2003_news/justice_for_johnny_delaney.html (accessed 18 March 2007). The broader exclusion and deprivation of this group is also vividly portrayed in the film Pavee Lackeen, portraying the daily struggles of a family of Irish Travellers in Dublin.

7. For further discussion of this issue see Clark (1994) and Davis et al. (1994).

8. A good example of this is the debate in Northern Ireland following the introduction of a more restrictive policy for housing in the countryside (PPS14), where antagonist discourse has been dominated by Arcadian notions of rural kinship and threats of urban-based decision-makers; see for example, http://pps14.com/

9. The legal and policy context in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different, but the outcomes have been broadly similar. Each of these planning jurisdictions has a complex body of planning law, case law, policy and circulars that illustrate state responses to the provision of Traveller-Gypsy accommodation, whose intricacies are not being explored here. The situation in the Republic of Ireland has followed a similar trajectory, despite the higher visibility of Irish Travellers (Norris & Winston, 2005).

10. Jack Straw stated that many Traveller-Gypsies ‘go burgling, thieving, breaking into vehicles, causing all kinds of trouble, including defecating in the doorways of firms' (quoted in Turner, 2000, p. 68).

11. It was estimated by Niner that up to 2,000 residential pitches and 2,500 transit pitches would be needed in the subsequent 5 years.

12. This was accompanied by a range of other guidance, including; Gypsies and Travellers: Facts and Figures (DCLG, 2006a), Guide to Effective use of enforcement powers: Part 1: Unauthorised encampments (DCLG, 2006b), Local Authorities and Gypsies and Travellers: A Guide to Responsibilities and Powers (DCLG, 2007b), and Preparing Regional Spatial Strategies Reviews on Gypsies and Travellers by Regional Planning Bodies (DCLG, 2007c).

13. There has also been recent policy reform on Traveller-Gypsy accommodation in the devolved administrations and, while acknowledging a range of policy stances across the United Kingdom, this discussion will focus on the evolving situation in England.

14. For example, by using a capitalized ‘T’ or ‘G’ and using terminology most appropriate to the localized travelling community.

15. What is envisaged here are the Planning Policy Statements of England and Northern Ireland, Scottish Planning Policy and Planning Policy Wales.