Clarifying guidelines on Gypsy Traveller encampments

I have written this petition after a particularly dreadful gypsies/travellers encampment on my mother’s land this summer. I am not asking the Public Petitions Committee to comment directly on this event; my family’s experience of this encampment has led us to question the effectiveness of current guidelines on gypsies/travellers encampments throughout Scotland. What has happened to our family has been repeated throughout Scotland and similar press reports can be found in areas such as Tayside, Fife and Edinburgh, to mention a few, in which the guidelines are being called into question.
Scottish Government Guidelines for managing unauthorised camping by gypsies/travellers in Scotland
As a private individual seeking help on this issue of trespassers on one’s own land, it would be natural to go to the police and rightly expect their assistance; no help was given to my family. The general presumption not to prosecute Gypsies/Travellers for crime of trespass prevents us from getting help:
• the only course of action is a civil eviction at your own cost.
• the police operate a non-harassment policy with regard to Gypsies/Travellers
• In our case crimes of fly tipping and defecating in public were ignored for 23 days.
• The only exception to this general presumption is public interest. What is public interest?
• An inflexible attitude and an unwillingness to find a solution.
Go to local authority for help. This was equally ineffective:
• the encampment is on private land and has nothing to do with us
• your only course of action is a civil eviction at your own cost
• we operate a non-harassment policy with regard to Gypsies/Travellers
• an inflexible attitude and an unwillingness to find a solution
Environmental Health inspected the encampment on the second day. We were asked if we wanted toilets. We said no for the following reasons:
• if we allow toilets it is interpreted that we therefore accept the encampment and the cost for these toilets would be ours as would the cost of emptying the waste etc. Further, caravan site legislation then comes into effect and my mother risked being fined for the conduct of her trespassers
• in our case the Environmental Health Officer was also the Gypsy/Traveller liaison officer – a direct conflict of interests?
So, unable to obtain any support from the above-mentioned agencies, the only other recourse is to refer to the guidelines and investigate any other possible solutions:
• private landowners are hardly mentioned and there is no practical help, advice, guidance or support within any guideline we researched
• the parameters for action to evict Gypsies/Travellers are based on the roles of police and local authorities; they include such things as public health, education, housing and social requirements of the Gypsies/Travellers. This is a burden which private landowners cannot be held accountable for
• private landowners are prevented from protection of property by these guidelines and are penalised if their local authority has no places available in official encampments.
Fly tipping. Our land was left in the most deplorable condition, a combination of household and human waste and rubble from occupational work. We contacted SEPA who told us to report it to Dumb Dumpers Helpline who said they would speak to our local authority (which we had already tried). They also said that they would tell Scotland is Beautiful. We were given a different number to call within our local authority. We called that number and it is that phone call which gave me the determination to write this petition. The person on the phone said the following:
• we cannot help you; it is private land and your responsibility
• we operate a non-harassment policy with regard to Gypsies/Travellers
• no point in you complaining to