In a nutshell: Travellers, gypsies and the planning system
For much of the tabloid press, as well as the broadsheets, one of this summer's number one domestic issues has been mounting discontent over traveller and gypsy encampments.
The furore has spawned specialist websites, a 'Middle England' protest group and even threats to picket Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's house.
A number of issues have collided, many of which are giving ministers a headache as the government fleshes out a review of its policies on travellers and gypsies.
This review is due to be completed this summer and will be lodged in ministerial in-trays shortly.
It centres on gypsy and traveller accommodation issues 'set within the over-arching policy aims of mainstreaming gypsy and traveller issues in the housing and planning systems and improving social inclusion'.
Ministers are on record as acknowledging that travellers and gypsies are a "marginalised group who often fare worse than others in terms of health, education and employment".
When planning minister Keith Hill gave evidence to a Commons inquiry on the subject recently, he insisted the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was not sitting on its hands pending this exercise.
Hill pointed out that guidance on housing needs assessments is being prepared by the department which include travellers and gypsies.
Circular 1/94 is being updated to address some of the problems with getting permission for new sites for these groups.
He told MPs: "In addition, the planning system will bring a regional dimension to the consideration of gypsy and traveller needs and provision."
More accurate statistics on the number of gypsies and travellers are being marshalled and Whitehall has published revised guidance on unauthorised encampments.
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act has introduced temporary stop notices to help tackle some of the problems arising from unauthorised development.
However, the government is faced with mounting calls for the reintroduction of the former duty that required all local authorities to provide sites for gypsies and travellers, abandoned by the then Conservative government in 1994.
That requirement - for local authorities to provide both permanent and transit pitches - was replaced by the advice in circular 1/94, which encouraged gypsies and travellers to provide for themselves by obtaining planning permission for their own sites.
Chief constables have made it clear they see a case for a new network of official sites, over 100 MPs have signed an Early Motion (EDM) urging action on this front and the Local Government Association (LGA) has supported the idea of a new statutory duty.
However, it has been argued that not every council would have to provide pitches because travellers don’t want to be in every part of England.
The LGA's Lee Searles told Parliament that since the former duty was deleted "many local authorities make the effort to plan and provide sites but unfortunately many do not".
He claimed: "This has led to some authorities feeling that they have become a honey-pot for travellers while their neighbours have not made any provision at all’.
The LGA wants any new duty buttressed by extra financial resources.
At present there are some 9,000 caravans on local-authority and privately-owned pitches and demand for thousands more.
At this stage the government is not convinced that a new obligation is needed.
Keith Hill told an all-party commons committee of MPs that any new duty would have "significant" spending implications and could arguably be seen as putting gypsies and travellers in an "advantageous position" by comparison with other local residents with housing needs.
He said: "On the whole I have to say that I am inclined to think that the introduction of the duty does not really sit comfortably with our policy of expanding areas of choice, discretion and decision making amongst local authorities."
Hill added that "rather less than half local authorities see the absence of a duty as a barrier to site provision".
The ODPM accepts that there is currently unmet demand for pitches but expects the new spatial planning system to deliver.
Judging by the comments from MPs it seems likely that the MPs' report will fuel the call for a new statutory duty.
The Council for Racial Equality’s Sarah Spencer commented: "The lack of sites mean people camp where they shouldn’t, which means residents are unhappy, which means there is press coverage, which means there is pressure to have no legal sites. It goes round and round and round."
Planning lawyers who handle gypsy and traveller planning cases are adamant that the existing regime is inadequate, particularly the advice in circular 1/94.
Barrister Marc Willers says: "The government's advice only covers those people that have 'gypsy status'... it does not provide any assistance to ethnic Romany Gypsies and Irish travellers, they will not be granted planning permission for a gypsy site unless they can also show that they fall within the statutory definition."
Willers adds: "Most gypsies and travellers seeking planning permission are refused planning permission by their local authorities and are forced to appeal to the secretary of state against the refusal."
"On appeal, local authorities have grown fond of contesting any claim to gypsy status."
There have been some signs this summer that the gypsy and travellers and local communities can come up with imaginative ways of taking the heat out of the problem via proposals for land swaps.
However, that remains the exception which tends to prove the rule. What has become something of a planning standoff is currently being left to the courts and planning inspectors to adjudicate, and that looks like being the case for a little while yet.
View 'Circular 1/94 - Gypsy sites and planning' here.
View the 'Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004' here.
19th August 2004
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