Gypsy fight is on

8:32am Thursday 24th April 2008

FIVE potential sites for new gypsy camps have been announced by North Wiltshire District Council, just as the date of the Minety inquiry is about to be announced.

The district council hasbeen given £250,000 by the Government to develop a site with 28 pitches.

Meanwhile gypsies living at the controversial Minety camp outside Malmesbury are preparing for an appeal, expected to be heard in July, against the district council's attempts to evict them.

The Minety site has been fraught with controversy ever since the gypsies set up camp without planning permission in 2003.

In 2005, the 16 gypsy families won a key fight when the then planning minister John Prescott granted them 18 months temporary permission. He made the decision with the expectation the council would find an alternative site.

Now the district has identified the five sites as part of the process of moving them on, said Coun Toby Sturgis.

He said: "The Minety appeal is about them being offered a suitable alternative which is what we said we would do.

"We couldn't consider alternatives until we as a council had carried out our gypsy and traveller needs assessment, which we have done."

But the gypsies' planning consultant Matthew Green said: "The council will be thinking they are so clever right now but what they will probably find is they are jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"What I expect will happen is that the objections from the public to the other sites will far outweigh the fuss that was made about the original Minety camp.

"The Minety gypsies are settled. Their kids are in school and moving them will disrupt their lives.

"I have no doubt the council's case at the appeal will be to say that they have done their bit by finding other sites.

"They will be breaking up families at Minety because the new sites won't be big enough."

Verina Hyland, chairman of the Minety Action Group, who lives next to the encampment on Sambourne Road, said: "The gypsies have always said that they would go without argument if there was somewhere suitable.

"While we have been trying to get rid of them we don't want them to go and make a nuisance of themselves elsewhere.

"I'm not gypsy bashing but you can't just turn up and live wherever you like.

"Now we are just waiting for the date of the appeal to see how this pans out."