No more Mr Nice Guy
Poster boy: David Cameron's Conservative Party has said it will crack down on Gypsies and Travellers if elected.
For years the Conservative Party has been desperate to no longer be seen as the “nasty party” by wooing more women and ethnic minorities into its ranks. But new policies revealed by the party, reveal that if it were to win a general election this year it would have Gypsies and Travellers firmly in its sights.
Travellers who occupy land without permission will be evicted under tough new laws proposed by the Conservatives. David Cameron wants to clamp down on what he claims are legal loopholes which allow Gypsies and Travellers to exploit the planning system. For those with nowhere legal or safe to stop a new criminal offence of intentional trespass would be created to be enforced by the police.
The new policies will affect both those with nowhere to stop and those developing private sites to escape harassment at the side of the road. The traditional party of landowners has signalled it wants to prevent landowners having to go through the civil courts to evict Gypsies and Travellers. The party also aims to remove legal protection given to Gypsies and Travellers by scrapping the Human Rights Act altogether and replacing it with a controversial “Bill of Rights”.
The party says it will also crack down on Gypsies and Travellers using the entirely legal route of applying for retrospective planning permission after pulling onto land they already own by creating more powerful stop notices for local council planners.
Bob Neill, Tory spokesman for local government and planning believes that special treatment is currently given to Gypsies and Travellers.
'The British public want to see fair play for all, rather than special treatment being given to some,' he said. 'Labour's changes have undermined community cohesion by creating a legitimate sense of injustice in the planning system.
'Law-abiding citizens understandably have to jump through many hoops to build in rural areas. It's wrong that certain groups have been given a green light to bypass those rules and concrete over the Green Belt when no one's looking.'
The Conservatives have taken inspiration from Ireland which has already introduced similar clampdowns on Traveller sites. They claim that the Human Rights Act, introduced by Labour in 2000, has given Gypsies and Travellers the green light to develop camps at will, fuelling community tensions.
Communities Secretary John Denham has rejected the Tory criticism, saying: 'There are already tough measures in place for local authorities to use where development takes place without planning permission. Most complaints come from areas where councils have failed to use them.'
The new policies have shocked Gypsy and Traveller campaigners and those in the community desperate for safe and secure accommodation. East Sussex Gypsy woman Linda Smith, who is awaiting the outcome of her own planning appeal after moving onto a field she owns near the historic Battle of Hastings battlefield, believes it’s time for the Gypsy and Traveller community to come out fighting.
“I’ve never voted in my life,” she says, “but I’ve just been and registered for the vote and every Gypsy and Traveller should do the same while they still can. I’ll be voting Labour because if the Conservatives get in, life will become much worse for Gypsies and Travellers.”