Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Dedication
- one Introduction
- two Past and present law
- three The costs to local authorities
- four The costs to others
- five Best Value
- six Rights, race relations and Best Value
- seven Conclusion: obstacles and opportunities
- References
- Appendices
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
A - Further examples of concerns expressed by local authorities in relation to the costs of unauthorised encampments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Dedication
- one Introduction
- two Past and present law
- three The costs to local authorities
- four The costs to others
- five Best Value
- six Rights, race relations and Best Value
- seven Conclusion: obstacles and opportunities
- References
- Appendices
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Britain's first official site for [newer] travellers is now open but there's a catch – it's the only one. Travellers warn that Brighton and Hove Council may have created a merry-go-round with only one stop as the site has a six-month maximum stay.… In the council's innovative draft document, Traveller Strategy, council leader Lynette Gwyn-Jones says, “A never-ending chain of evictions has cost our country vastly more in legal and other costs than a solution based in site-provision and temporary stopping places would have”. Gwyn-Jones’ election to leader is a marked shift from the policies of her predecessor, Labour peer Lord Bassam, who once remarked that travellers should be “driven out of town”. In the five year period from 1992-97 there were 300 evictions in East Sussex, 70 of them in Brighton and Hove. Nationally, the cost of evicting travellers has been estimated at £10-35 million every year. (Ansell, 1997, p 5)
The strategy document referred to also states that:
The mismatch of numbers of Travellers within the Sussex area and numbers of sites on which they can legally stay has inevitably led to high numbers of evictions. Throughout East Sussex alone there were an estimated 300 evictions in the five year period from 1992 to 1997 of which around 70 were in Brighton and Hove. Although no attempt has been made to quantify the legal and other costs associated with those evictions the costs of each one will vary from a few hundred pounds to several thousand representing a huge expenditure of resources on the process of chasing Travellers from one site to another. (Brighton and Hove Council, 1999, p 7)
The County of Avon was asked by a local Traveller support group in 1994 how much it had spent on unauthorised encampments; in correspondence it estimated that in 1993/94 the costs of facilities and evictions together had been £239,874. It also stated that:
… there will be a proportion of the time spent by Central Support Departments on travellers generally which is not broken down into further detail and therefore it is difficult to quantify. If you were to assume, for the sake of argument, that 50% of this was spent on evictions and related issues this would amount to a further £221,000.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- At What Cost?The Economics of Gypsy and Traveller Encampments, pp. 111 - 114Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2002