Trudi Davies The Politics Show South East

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CRE: Unauthorised camps are avoidable

Travellers and gypsies are underrepresented and their needs are being ignored by local authorities according to the latest report from the Commission for Racial Equality.

In Kent they are due to publish their own report on the situation on Monday 22 May 2006.

It comes after the government changed the rules on gypsy and traveller sites, moving the responsibility for providing them from the county council, which had it until 1994, to the district councils which have had it since 2004.

From 1994 to 2004, there was no duty on any local authority to provide sites, and no money to pay for them.

Years of neglect

The consequences of 10 years of neglect are clear according to Joe Jones from the International Gypsies and Travellers Association.

He claims that there is a shortfall of around 150 pitches in Kent alone and so travellers have no choice but to set up illegal encampments.

We hear from one family who have been moved on 52 times in the past 12 months.

Joe claims that the cost of clearing up after illegal camps is about �500,000 a year in Kent and he argues that the money would be better spent on providing permanent sites.

His anger is directed at Kent County Council who he accuses of not building a single site since 1994.

No encampments planned

At the moment 750,000 houses are planned for the South East but there is no provision for travellers or gypsies built in to the South East Plan.

Travellers associations claim that just 0.5% of the land mass would provide land for 305 families.

But feelings run high on both sides. One Kent resident paid �150,000 for a field near her property in order to stop travellers purchasing it and setting up camp.

The CRE points out that many authorities allow their views to be shaped by public complaints and fail to acknowledge the travellers as constituents with needs that must be represented.

Join us to hear the views of the travellers, the council and local MPs.

What do you think? Should travellers be better provided for by your local council? Do you have, or do you want a permanent site in your town?

Email us via the link below or Text your opinion to 07786 209252.

Nowhere to buy

In Whitstable they call them 'DFLS', Down from Londoners.

Of the estimated 350,000 second homes owned in the UK, a staggering 67,000 are located in the South East.

This is the second highest percentage in the country, beaten only by Devon and Cornwall. But does it matter?

Should people who have worked hard and saved money be prevented from buying houses where they like?

Elinor Goodman, chair of the Affordable Rural Housing Commission, whose report is out this week, says: "If we don't act now, more and more people will be priced out of the countryside - leaving rural communities to increasingly become dormitories for the better off and places where people go to retire or for the weekend."

What can council's do to preserve the character of a popular town or village?

Local authorities now have the power to reduce the Council Tax discount on second homes and some have done so but there is no requirement for the extra revenue raised to be spent on either the local area or on affordable housing.

Paul Siegert takes a trip to Whitstable to find out what local residents and businesses really think.

Are second homes damaging the South East?

Are you struggling to afford a home? Email us via the link below or Text your opinion to 07786 209252.

Feedback and papers

We look forward to hearing your views and putting them to our guests and we look at news around the region with Rebecca Smith from The Isle of Thanet Gazette.

Join in

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The Politics Show South East

Join Paul Siegert on the Politics Show on Sunday 04 June 2006 at 12.00pm on BBC One.

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