East Lancashire travellers: We just want somewhere to stay (From Lancashire Telegraph)

My heart bleeds, it really does.

If you want somewhere to stay, buy or rent your own plot of land, rather than trespassing, using land that does not belong to you. You have no entitlement to just settle wherever you see fit

just want somewhere to stay?
Same here, I bought a frigging house.
Occasionally I get the urge to travel about and pitch camp on some grass somewhere nice and have a change of scenery. I call that 'holiday'. It happens about twice per year.
FFS!

"We do not want handouts, just somewhere to stay.”
.
OK ! NO PROBLEM ! All you do is take a cheque for, say, £30,000 to any bank or building society, show them your employment details and fill in a Mortgage Application Form - simples . . you can be in by the start of September.
.
That's what the rest of us do.

wats the problem as long as they dont do any harm

chris283 wrote:
wats the problem as long as they dont do any harm

Chris, you obviously don't have first hand experience of travellers, like I do!

well they have never caused me any harm so wats the problem

“We leave places very tidy. We take all rubbish to local recycling points" - Really? I trust you werent one of the travellers on the Green Lane Community playing fields then. That area was left truly disgusting, full of deep ruts and a health risk due to ...erm how can I put this delicately....'human waste'. And this site was neither 'wasteland' or just 'a field' it was paid for by local peoples taxes for their children to have a clean, safe place to play.

I understand there's plenty of vacant land in Ireland

Like Mrs Leah says there are good and bad in every community. Before I retired I used to visit many estates and some were lovely others were disgusting with rubbish strewn about everywhere. Anything from paper rubbish to old furniture etc. This was where people lived in houses not travellers. So all you people commenting make sure you have never thrown rubbish before you comment. And yes I have had experience of travellers but I am not a traveller myself. I have found most to be very pleasant and helpful, others not so pleasant, but that is the same as any society.

the difference between people dumping rubbish outside their houses and travellers dumping it were they've been and gone....the clue is in your phrasing....THEIR HOUSES, not public land that they've chosen to trespass on as a place to live for them and their children!! And how stupid a comment is chris 283 they've never harmed me so what's the problem - i bet you've never been harmed by a terrorist have you but you wouldn't have the same response? Just ebcause someone's never harmed you doesn't make it right for them to continue to be a burden on home owners and taxpayers - we just want somewhere to stay - get a house and pay council tax like the rest of us and you'll be welcome to stay there - whether you want benefits or not, as a traveller you are automatically expecting a free ride!!

Well this is a sensitive topic!
Even the comments about deletions are getting deleted!

LT, if you don't want reality comments, then stop giving news space to people operating on the fringe of society who you even acknowledge in your own article as operating illegally!

"THERE have been several illegal travellers camps in East Lancashire in the last few week"

It's like saying there have been quite a few break-ins this weekend, but enough of the victims... let's hear it from the burglars point of view...

I wrote this earlier, yet it was deleted. I'd love to know what is wrong with the comment??

You only have to ask why comments have been deleted and that post is gone. This really is pathetic LT, why not just say that no comments will be acceptable?

David Watkinson - very poor reporting. Why have you not asked Christy Leah where her income to buy food, etc. comes from ? Or whether she pays tax on this income ?
.
As for there being inadequate official sites to stop at, what is wrong with commercial campsites ? Or do travellers expect to be able to live a holiday lifestyle but at zero cost ?

I am commenting with a wealth of experience of travellers and giving an opinion based on my experiences, yet all are getting deleted... What's the point in having this 'commenting lark'? Talk about freedom of speech in the press eh!!

I openly admit that I'm not a big fan of the travelling community - what I've seen of MOST of them doesn't endear them to me at all, and I think that they have the cheek of the devil to expect people to put up with them camping on private land. However, there is currently a group camped on a field in Cliviger. Despite the fact that it is private land and they shouldn't be on it in the first place (the landowner has gone ape-sh!t about it and quite rightly so, since it will cost him £1000 to obtain an eviction order which can take up to 21 days to become active), this bunch have kept themselves to themselves; there's been no loud noise; there's no horses, piles of scrap metal, household waste or other crud lying about; and to be fair, they keep themselves to themselves. I'm not an apologist for them, and I don't particularly want them camped in my back yard because it does make people uneasy (my elderly parents are particularly worried out their continued presence), but they don't seem to be your typical "buy some pegs dearie, tarmac your drive (badly) for a score" brigade. I do tend to agree with Mrs Leahs assertion that there's good and bad in every community - it's just a pity that the bad part of the travelling community seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

chris283 wrote:
well they have never caused me any harm so wats the problem

are you suggesting that for cases involving the travelling community trespassing, a verdict can only be reached depending on whether or not they have presented difficulties to chris283 from nelson?

And Appleby Horse Fair was 7 weeks ago - I'd hardly call that "recent"...

They were camped near my works on bank hall carpark and they left bags of rubbish and scrap everywhere. No doubt the council tax payers will have to fund their lifestyle choice. They should change the law, innocent people have to pay £1000's of pounds to evict them. sometimes the gypo's will take a bride and move on. No car tax, no insurance, no permission to camp , easy solution crush their caravans, they will soon get the message

I don't understand why it is unacceptable to use the word g£p*y when talking about g$p"ies unless the word g£p*y is used as part of a humorous title of something that is about g£p%ies and that title contains all of or a combination of the words big, fat and Greek before the word g"p£y. e.g. programme on last night on BBC called The Big Gypsy Eviction. Should it not be The Big Traveller Eviction or another example being My Big Fat Traveller Wedding instead of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. What are we allowed to call them? who makes up these rule? Gy£s& - oh no horrible word derogaratory blah blah blah but big, fat Gypsy and it's part of a title ha ha ha thats fine.

doleboytrotter wrote:
I don't understand why it is unacceptable to use the word g£p*y when talking about g$p"ies unless the word g£p*y is used as part of a humorous title of something that is about g£p%ies and that title contains all of or a combination of the words big, fat and Greek before the word g"p£y. e.g. programme on last night on BBC called The Big Gypsy Eviction. Should it not be The Big Traveller Eviction or another example being My Big Fat Traveller Wedding instead of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. What are we allowed to call them? who makes up these rule? Gy£s& - oh no horrible word derogaratory blah blah blah but big, fat Gypsy and it's part of a title ha ha ha thats fine.

So u watched the programme last night and u still agree with the majority? If they were Asian this would be classed as racist and to compare a terrorist with a gypsy is an absolute disgrace, what is wrong with you people? It breaks my heart to think that these people are treat worse than dogs they have children who dnt behave anywhere near as bad as the country kids they dnt smoke drink swear have sex before marriage, and yes I have had plenty of dealings with travellers, I lived next door to a traveller yard for ten years, I have lived with the travellers, my babys godparents were travellers, they are cleaner than half the tramps that live in Accrington, what gives any person here a right to judge a person on the home they choose to live in, that man last night was a disgrace he allowed those families to be evicted and there homes were beautiful x Instead of bangin on about the travellers takin this n doin that av a go at a smack head in the street who steals belongings treasured items ya car breaks in to ya house when u then think of a traveller taking a bit of land it seems small in comparisonx

They aren't Gypsies; they could be Romani or Irish Travellers or just plain Travellers.

I have difficulty believing that they don't leave a mess behind. They won't be allowed to take their vans to the recycling facilities so they will have to dump it somewhere. Mind you in Blackburn it won't make much difference because some of the locals are just as bad.

My only verbal contact with travellers was at a launderette They spoke to me and they were very polite. So it could be true, perhaps there are good and bad in all groups.

I'd like to know more about the Christian festivals that these travellers have been attending. There does seem to be an interest in Christianity amongs travelling groups.

What's wrong with these people living differently than the rest of us. We are so obsessed with bricks and mortar and up to our eyeballs in mortgages. As an aside many travellers do live in houses but I'm sure they prefer to be on the move.

Republican wrote:
They aren't Gypsies; they could be Romani or Irish Travellers or just plain Travellers.

I have difficulty believing that they don't leave a mess behind. They won't be allowed to take their vans to the recycling facilities so they will have to dump it somewhere. Mind you in Blackburn it won't make much difference because some of the locals are just as bad.

My only verbal contact with travellers was at a launderette They spoke to me and they were very polite. So it could be true, perhaps there are good and bad in all groups.

I'd like to know more about the Christian festivals that these travellers have been attending. There does seem to be an interest in Christianity amongs travelling groups.

What's wrong with these people living differently than the rest of us. We are so obsessed with bricks and mortar and up to our eyeballs in mortgages. As an aside many travellers do live in houses but I'm sure they prefer to be on the move.

They are actually very religious indeed x I agree with your comments fully tho, but as I say any traveller all be it tinker Romanie which ever they follow a strict catholic religion x

cdog wat ever your name is stop moaning there more important things going on in the world ie like people loosing there jobs then people crying about these people there british and if people dont like it TOUGH

chris283 wrote:
cdog wat ever your name is stop moaning there more important things going on in the world ie like people loosing there jobs then people crying about these people there british and if people dont like it TOUGH

Class!! Hahaha You've spent too much time travelling Chris!

"A week ago, 35 families pitched up at Haslingden Leisure Centre, including several people who had featured on the TV series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. "

So what do they want? Special treatment because they've been on TV? I am allowed to enjoy services provided by the local council such as having the street where I live cleaned, my rubbish removed, the roads repaired and street lighting at night becaause I pay Council Tax for it. I also pay shed loads of income tax trying to help this god foresaken country back onto its feet. So, Mr & Mrs Traveller - care to comment about what you are contributing?

why is that when you state the truth about a subject of travellers and the way they live, people don't like what you say everyone is entitled to their own opinion
having your comments removed is no laughing matter politically correct. lets face it i wish now i was a traveller they get everything even their own way,
when you can't state the truth , why ask people to comment if you are going to remove them soon after

They should be clamped or something, make them responsible for their actions. Fine them for littering, its illegal. No one has the meatballs to enforce some law and order. Thats why they continue like this, they get away with it.

An horrific confusion between legal and lawful here.
Very few of you know the differnce between the two obviously!
They live lawfully, and if they dont they suffer the consequesnces.
We, sadly, live legally. Legal is the rules of society.
They dont properly belong in our society, so they arent controlled by its rules.
Stop getting sour that you dont have the courage to do the same!
They dont pay taxes! Pah, firstly, they pay taxes on the large amounts of fuel they must use to travel, they also pay taxes on clothes, food etc.
They dont pay employment tax perhaps, but if you had the guts to get away with it, neither would you!
You want someone to blame, blame youselves! It was your weakness allowing the government to set rules that only benefit government and fund war that forced them out of the seasonal farm work they were loved for just a century ago. And now you suffer under those rules, you want to make sure everyone else gets a share of suffering too!
It's everyones desire to own, so they can control so now they have no where to stay lawfully. Why cant you just use stuff instead of buy it? Because you are creating your own little rulership to make youself feel better about the control you dont have elsewhere.
The really funny thing is, what ever you think you own, you dont.
Everything you have of any value, is registered to the crown! Ha Ha! Even your name is registered.
Check out registration, its a transfer of title ownership...birth certificate clearly states, Not to be used as ID, crown copyright!
Once you register anything, a new set of rules is applied upon you.
Funny! And when the revelations time comes, and Gods son comes and claims back what is his, which was given to us for ALL MEN to use, what are you gonna tell him...get lost, its mine!
Leave the travellers/gypsys/et
c alone...jealous bunch of ratbags.

now in the north wrote:
An horrific confusion between legal and lawful here.
Very few of you know the differnce between the two obviously!
They live lawfully, and if they dont they suffer the consequesnces.
We, sadly, live legally. Legal is the rules of society.
They dont properly belong in our society, so they arent controlled by its rules.
Stop getting sour that you dont have the courage to do the same!
They dont pay taxes! Pah, firstly, they pay taxes on the large amounts of fuel they must use to travel, they also pay taxes on clothes, food etc.
They dont pay employment tax perhaps, but if you had the guts to get away with it, neither would you!
You want someone to blame, blame youselves! It was your weakness allowing the government to set rules that only benefit government and fund war that forced them out of the seasonal farm work they were loved for just a century ago. And now you suffer under those rules, you want to make sure everyone else gets a share of suffering too!
It's everyones desire to own, so they can control so now they have no where to stay lawfully. Why cant you just use stuff instead of buy it? Because you are creating your own little rulership to make youself feel better about the control you dont have elsewhere.
The really funny thing is, what ever you think you own, you dont.
Everything you have of any value, is registered to the crown! Ha Ha! Even your name is registered.
Check out registration, its a transfer of title ownership...birth certificate clearly states, Not to be used as ID, crown copyright!
Once you register anything, a new set of rules is applied upon you.
Funny! And when the revelations time comes, and Gods son comes and claims back what is his, which was given to us for ALL MEN to use, what are you gonna tell him...get lost, its mine!
Leave the travellers/gypsys/et

c alone...jealous bunch of ratbags.

when this fictional character does turn up to claim all that is his I will gladly hand it over until then i would rather they didn't 'use' anything that they have not paid for, just as the rest of us have to do.

i watched that programe last night i was disgusted they had bought the land but because the coucile desided it was green belt it had to be demolished at the cost of 6million is that right no its notthat 6 million could have been given to the hospices around the country its 1 rule for 1 and another rule for gypies grow up counciles everywhere your quick to help other waifes and strays

I have just read this information about travellers in Blackburn....I finished work tonight around 11.30ish when i was due to be out of work at 11.00 as i had to deal with three traveller girls/women who had stolen from my coffee store in blackburn. Many travellers had moved on to 'the willows' car park around 2 weeks back (which i live close to) and i have to say it was very disturbing having them so close to my home. Two traveller men approached an elderley lady's home asking her if she wanted work doing on her house and whilst in conversation one of the men went to the back of her house and tried to get through the back door (obviously to steal things) untill he realised he couldnt get in. The elderly lady was shocked and scared and the whole village soon knew. The travellers have recently moved down the road on an industrial estate factory car park. Today at work i have served 4 groups of travellers and we have a small amount of travellers that come in to the store who we recognise and serve quite regularly. As i have lived in blackburn all of my life i know a lot of the travellers faces that live in blackburn/darwen and they are all fine and never have any problems with them. The travellers that came in today that was a different story (the ones on the industrial estate that will not move). First of all we have a group of men asking for money to be changed, i could not open the till without someone buying something and so they were told, they were pretend fighting in the middle of the coffee shop infront of local customers and making a real racket! they soon left..we had a young girl and two little girls come in later, the litle girls were rummaging in the tubs of biscuits at the front counter. They were told to please stop it and the young girl told them to stop it when we looked at her. The young girl left the shop and left the little girls in the shop, as we dont have eyes in the back of our heads we didnt see the girls pick 2 chocolates up and open them. one of my workers caught them and the younger girl came back in to the shop and my worker told them she must pay for them. She replied 'Ill have to go to the bank i'll bring it later' did she turn up? did she hell. Then around 9 pm another traveller girl came in and asked what time we closed, we told her 11pm she replied 'ahh thats good thankyou' she seemed polite and she left the shop. At 10.58 pm the girl came in with an older traveller woman and a teenage traveller girl. They were all stood at the counter. As the till at the front counter had been taken off we had to take their order then go to the till at the drive thru area and input it in that till and take the payment. They paid for 3 drinks and one worker turned their back to go to the till and as she went to give them their change she noticed them messing around with the biscuits at the front in the large tubs. she knew they had taken something. She left it as she did not know for sure and didnt have any evidence. They left the store after being rude and ignorant, chucking their rubbish on the till saying 'put that in the bin'. The older woman returned 2 minutes later and said her latte didnt taste right (she had tried her friends cold drinks and obviously liked them and wanted one of them
) so we made her a cold one. we watched her walk out and she was shaking her drink at her friends sat in the car all laughing. We all felt like we had been taken for granted and so one girl decided to check the CCTV to see what happened. We went back to the time and as the worker turned her back to take the payment the older woman had put aorund 8 biscuits up her sleeve and they were all laughing. Then the teenage one reached over and took a chocolate bar then looked around for anyone watching. they went to steal more but at this point we had clocked them and hovering around the till area. One worker then went out to get the registration as they were still sat there. They asked 'What is the problem?' we said the problem is we have just seen you on camera stealing at least 6 things and so after a small conversatin one agreed to come in and pay and said their must have been a misunderstaning that they thought these biscuits had been added to the final price :s WHATEVER!! It is so frustrating watching them on TV asking why cant we leave them alone!!!! Dont treat us like rubbish and find a proper place to live. Buy your own land that you can actually live on that is not 'green belt' and then be normal and get a job and send your children to school like the rest of us. They say they work hard..yes looking over everybodys back yards to see what they can take to the scrap yard without asking and offering work and ripping elderly women off. One traveller headbutted my partner around 4 years ago now for absoluteley nothing at all and bust his nose, its just un acceptable. One asked him 'you think youre a bad boy' whilst sat in his car at the traffic lights. If you want us to accept you then treat us right and we will treat you with respect. We dont chose to register our selves it is imperitive to do these things to live!!! God how can they get away with it? They earn cash everyday and do nto pay a penny of tax its ridiculous. The pocle know this so do something baout it. If you want to live in a caravan that is your choice but you have to pay to live on a site that's rules! Unless yu earn the right to stay somewhere. It is disgusting when they re plonking theirselves on restaraunt car parks and asda (blackburn) are you not embarrassed of your selves? They drive around in nearly brand new vehicles and have brand new caravans..What??? Even i cant afford that!! And none of them have a full time job. I watched the 'my big fat gypsy wedding' thinking that it might actually change my opinion of them but it did the exact opposite..grabbing and all that jazz its just out of this world the things they can get away with. you just have to laugh it off because you know nothing will get done about it!!

bcm291 wrote:
I have just read this information about travellers in Blackburn....I finished work tonight around 11.30ish when i was due to be out of work at 11.00 as i had to deal with three traveller girls/women who had stolen from my coffee store in blackburn. Many travellers had moved on to 'the willows' car park around 2 weeks back (which i live close to) and i have to say it was very disturbing having them so close to my home. Two traveller men approached an elderley lady's home asking her if she wanted work doing on her house and whilst in conversation one of the men went to the back of her house and tried to get through the back door (obviously to steal things) untill he realised he couldnt get in. The elderly lady was shocked and scared and the whole village soon knew. The travellers have recently moved down the road on an industrial estate factory car park. Today at work i have served 4 groups of travellers and we have a small amount of travellers that come in to the store who we recognise and serve quite regularly. As i have lived in blackburn all of my life i know a lot of the travellers faces that live in blackburn/darwen and they are all fine and never have any problems with them. The travellers that came in today that was a different story (the ones on the industrial estate that will not move). First of all we have a group of men asking for money to be changed, i could not open the till without someone buying something and so they were told, they were pretend fighting in the middle of the coffee shop infront of local customers and making a real racket! they soon left..we had a young girl and two little girls come in later, the litle girls were rummaging in the tubs of biscuits at the front counter. They were told to please stop it and the young girl told them to stop it when we looked at her. The young girl left the shop and left the little girls in the shop, as we dont have eyes in the back of our heads we didnt see the girls pick 2 chocolates up and open them. one of my workers caught them and the younger girl came back in to the shop and my worker told them she must pay for them. She replied 'Ill have to go to the bank i'll bring it later' did she turn up? did she hell. Then around 9 pm another traveller girl came in and asked what time we closed, we told her 11pm she replied 'ahh thats good thankyou' she seemed polite and she left the shop. At 10.58 pm the girl came in with an older traveller woman and a teenage traveller girl. They were all stood at the counter. As the till at the front counter had been taken off we had to take their order then go to the till at the drive thru area and input it in that till and take the payment. They paid for 3 drinks and one worker turned their back to go to the till and as she went to give them their change she noticed them messing around with the biscuits at the front in the large tubs. she knew they had taken something. She left it as she did not know for sure and didnt have any evidence. They left the store after being rude and ignorant, chucking their rubbish on the till saying 'put that in the bin'. The older woman returned 2 minutes later and said her latte didnt taste right (she had tried her friends cold drinks and obviously liked them and wanted one of them
) so we made her a cold one. we watched her walk out and she was shaking her drink at her friends sat in the car all laughing. We all felt like we had been taken for granted and so one girl decided to check the CCTV to see what happened. We went back to the time and as the worker turned her back to take the payment the older woman had put aorund 8 biscuits up her sleeve and they were all laughing. Then the teenage one reached over and took a chocolate bar then looked around for anyone watching. they went to steal more but at this point we had clocked them and hovering around the till area. One worker then went out to get the registration as they were still sat there. They asked 'What is the problem?' we said the problem is we have just seen you on camera stealing at least 6 things and so after a small conversatin one agreed to come in and pay and said their must have been a misunderstaning that they thought these biscuits had been added to the final price :s WHATEVER!! It is so frustrating watching them on TV asking why cant we leave them alone!!!! Dont treat us like rubbish and find a proper place to live. Buy your own land that you can actually live on that is not 'green belt' and then be normal and get a job and send your children to school like the rest of us. They say they work hard..yes looking over everybodys back yards to see what they can take to the scrap yard without asking and offering work and ripping elderly women off. One traveller headbutted my partner around 4 years ago now for absoluteley nothing at all and bust his nose, its just un acceptable. One asked him 'you think youre a bad boy' whilst sat in his car at the traffic lights. If you want us to accept you then treat us right and we will treat you with respect. We dont chose to register our selves it is imperitive to do these things to live!!! God how can they get away with it? They earn cash everyday and do nto pay a penny of tax its ridiculous. The pocle know this so do something baout it. If you want to live in a caravan that is your choice but you have to pay to live on a site that's rules! Unless yu earn the right to stay somewhere. It is disgusting when they re plonking theirselves on restaraunt car parks and asda (blackburn) are you not embarrassed of your selves? They drive around in nearly brand new vehicles and have brand new caravans..What??? Even i cant afford that!! And none of them have a full time job. I watched the 'my big fat gypsy wedding' thinking that it might actually change my opinion of them but it did the exact opposite..grabbing and all that jazz its just out of this world the things they can get away with. you just have to laugh it off because you know nothing will get done about it!!

I can tell this post took ages and had a lot of emotion but it will get removed, it's too near the knuckle! your story is not uncommon!

chris283 wrote:
well they have never caused me any harm so wats the problem

Ah that is that settled then, They can all go and live in your garden. See how long that one lasts

But they do create harm, they leave their garbage behind them and don't tidy up, they should pay like we all have to, utility bills etc I don't want a mortgage but I have one or else I would have nowhere to live, they are loud and obnixious and you won;t change the minds of us law abiding residents so get lost and annoy somewhere else

i love scrap metal