BBC documentary on Meriden RAID sparks challenge from Travellers, villagers and the Traveller Movement

By MIKE DOHERTY

News reporter

Above: the Travellers' site at Meriden- pictured here in May 2010- quickly became a national news story after a group of villagers established 24-hour protest camps.

THE TRAVELLER Movement, former residents of the evicted Meriden Traveller site and villagers from Meriden are set to launch a formal complaint about a BBC documentary that praised the Meriden ‘community’ for its campaign against the Travellers' unauthorised development.

Meriden RAID (Residents Against Inappropriate Development) campaigners, who set up a three year protest camp outside the unauthorised site, were interviewed for a 3-minute slot during ‘Street Patrol’, a BBC documentary series that highlights anti-social behaviour in the UK.

Introducing the clip, Street Patrol presenter, Dominic Littlewood, said that the Meriden community were determined “to fight the good fight” and have the Travellers evicted for “tearing up” an otherwise “peaceful village”. Other members of RAID spoke about the “peaceful” and “dignified” community response to the alleged constant bullying, abusive and anti-social and criminal behaviour of the Travellers.

The documentary featured Meriden RAID leader, David McGrath, who was introduced as Meriden’s community leader by Littlewood. In the BBC clip, McGrath, who also runs a consultancy business advising other anti-Traveller site campaigns, claimed that Meriden RAID had woken “a sleeping giant in this part of middle England.” Another RAID campaigner claimed that Meriden did not really have much community until the Travellers arrived and the resulting protest campaign galvanised the residents into action.

Yet both the Travellers- who were ordered to leave by a planning inspector after a four year legal battle- and many local residents from the village itself, are unhappy with how they were portrayed by the BBC documentary and are set to launch an official complaint.

Senga Townsley, who lived on the Traveller site owned by Romany Gypsy Noah Burton, said: “I am furious and hurt. None of us, RAID included, were saints and we all pushed each other’s buttons at times, but the way the BBC showed it was so one sided. It’s completely untrue that there was constant abuse. We logged complaints to the police about it and they logged complaints about us. Sometimes there would be all-night parties and lots of men drinking and singing in the camp and sometimes, especially at the weekend, this would go on all night. It wasn’t just local residents as the BBC claimed. I was frightened to walk past them on my own when I had to go into the village to go to the shops.”

The loud raucous parties that where often thrown by the Meriden RAID protestors were also witnessed by Shay Clipson from the UK Association of Gypsy Women. She describes going to the Meriden site to support the Burtons and the Townsleys and seeing men “stripped to the waist” and holding axes, wandering drunkenly around the protesters' camp-fire.

Ms Townsley, who has cerebral palsy and is now living by the roadside, adds that: “In the village itself, most people were nice when you talked to them. OK, some said that they were not happy with how we went about moving onto the site without planning permission, but they were friendly. Most of the protestors were awful though. I had to drive past them often and I would sometimes wave and some were OK, but some seemed to hate us and made that very clear. I was called all sorts of names. They had CCTV cameras trained on our caravans recording everything we did on monitors in the protest camp. We complained to the Information Commissioner about this.”

Above: David McGrath, who was introduced as Meriden's community leader on the BBC's Street Patrol show, claimed that the Travellers had "woken a sleeping giant" in middle England

“The documentary shows a clip taken by RAID campaigners of Dave McGrath complaining about constant 14 hour a day noise and in the background you can hear the noise of a buzz saw,” says Ms Townsley. “That is not fair. That clip was filmed by the protestors when Noah was cutting down a tree by the entrance to make it safer for the traffic. We were ordered to do that by the council. He only took an hour and it was well after 10.00am on a Saturday, not a bank holiday morning as the BBC say. When we did other work, it was always between 10.00am and 4pm. We were trying to get on with the protesters at first, hoping that if we didn’t cause any trouble they wouldn’t be so against us and accept us.”

Barbara Cookes, a retired farmer who has lived in Meriden since she “was a little girl” and who describes herself as “a Conservative through and through” is also furious about the BBC documentary. After initially supporting Meriden RAID and letting them set up a camp on her land, she eventually ordered them to go after she got “fed up” with them and concerned for villagers who lived near the “noisy” protest camps.

“I wasn’t happy when the Burtons and the Townsleys first moved on because I have been trying to get planning permission for some log cabins myself for years and it seemed unfair to me, but once I had met Noah in the lane and we had a long talk about it over a cup of tea, I decided to live and let live,” she says.

“I remember the time Noah cut down the tree. It certainly didn’t go on for longer than an hour. Noah is far too capable a man for that. He made short work of that tree.”

“The Travellers were certainly big spenders in the local village shops and supported all the local businesses. Susie and Senga from the site helped to set up and cook for my annual open garden party for the Macmillan Cancer Trust. They were always willing to help – as was Noah. Dave McGrath is an awful man, and I have told him this to his face,” she says. “He most definitely does not represent me or a lot of people in the village who I know.”

Katharine Quarmby, an experienced journalist, author and ex-BBC producer, who researched the Meriden dispute for her book about Travellers called “No Place To Call Home”, was also shocked by the BBC documentary.

"I was surprised, as a journalist, to watch such a one-sided insert on a controversial subject. Editorial guidelines should dictate that producers and editors are mindful of the need for balance when reporting on such subjects,” she says.

“I am also concerned that allegations of wrong-doing were made against the families without any evidence being brought forward and without the families being asked for their side of the story."

A spokesperson for the Traveller Movement said:

“The BBC documentary clip shown on Street Patrol has no regard at all to journalistic quality or ethics and the allegations of criminal and anti-social behaviour made on the programme by the presenter and the Meriden RAID campaigners are damaging, unfair and not true.

“The Traveller Movement and the former residents of the Traveller site and their supporters, who were not given a chance by the BBC to defend themselves, will be lodging a formal complaint to the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit. Unfortunately, we also believe that the film has a subtler but sinister and racist slant to it and we will also be raising that.”

“When covering news and current affairs, the BBC has a duty to produce reports that are accurate, fair and that represent all sides of controversial topics. The BBC has completely failed to do this and has broken its own editorial code and let down its licence paying viewers.”