Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople Development Plan Document
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New searchTony Harwood paints a romantic picture of the Gypsy/Traveller community. Unfortunately times have changed. In my day, we happily employed this community on the farm and have maintained close contact with these families over the years. These very same families are shocked and sickened at the way the "new" G/T communities behave. The crime level has soared amongst them and they are taught to laugh at authority and to disregard the law. We know this from the lovely Gypsy/Travellers who have maintained the old ways. This is why there are so many people against most of the new G/T communities. This attitude is leaking out into the settled communities - because it works! No need for good old-fashioned honesty if you get further by autocratic means. It is laborious to go through the planning system: just build what you want and wait for the over-stretched under-funded Council to allow retrospective planning - the quickest way for all. The crime level has risen amongst the hare-coursing and catapulting fraternity, laying bets on all this cruelty. They trespass mostly at night on farmland, cutting padlocks, driving across crops ruining farmers' livelihoods. Personally, as a female in her 60s, I was rammed head-on in my car by lampers. A female friend's car window was smashed by catapult ammo, a shop window, a train and a school bus attacked, all "just for fun". These are not apocryphal stories, these crimes are escalating amongst the G/T communities. It is well-known that the Police prefer not to enter these sites. In addition, most Councillors are from urban backgrounds and cannot imagine the problems faced by the rural community. It is only those with boots on the ground that have true knowledge and love of the countryside. Rumour is spreading that one MBC councillor actually referred to a part of the countryside as "featureless farmland" which explains it all. You state "Maidstone borough has the highest Gypsy and Traveller population by local authority area across England and Wales." We implore you, as much as is legally possible, not to allow any more spread of these sites across Kent.
