MP expresses concern over gypsy sites

3:21pm Friday 23rd May 2008

North Wiltshire MP, James Gray, has written to North Wiltshire District Council expressing his concerns over the current consultation with regard to the proposed permanent gypsy encampments within the constituency.

In his letter, Mr Gray said that "The Government have set North Wiltshire District Council an unachievable task, namely to assess the need for such sites (unachievable since neither you nor anyone else has any means of knowing how many gypsy caravans may arrive in the county at any one moment); and then to make provision for permanent sites for those hypothetically arriving gypsies."

Mr Gray also commented that "The whole exercise seems to me to be sending out the wrong messages to the gypsy community as a whole. Those who may be contemplating breaking planning law in the way that those at Minety have done will be encouraged to do so on the grounds that it might lead to some other permanent site for them; and being forced by a foolish Government policy to build new gypsy sites in the way that is proposed will simply invite gypsies from as far as away as Ireland and Romania to come to Wiltshire."