Already the government has reversed progressive policies giving incentives for local authorities to develop Gypsy and Traveller sites, by cuts announced in the Housing and Communities Agency budget, cancelling all next year's bids for sites. The Conservatives announced plans to scrap planning and housing circulars which have started to give Gypsies and Travellers a "level playing field" in planning disputes with local authorities and planning inspectors. According to Eric Pickles, they want to revive the "Gypsy law" of criminal trespass. This discriminatory law was derided when Michael Howard campaigned on it in 2005.Detailed research has identified targets for sites for Gypsies and Travellers, and yards for showmen. Many have been agreed with local authorities and progress was starting to be made. After years of inaction on sites a cumulative need has built up. The situation now is worse than ever and will only get worse without new provision.My MP, Conservative Mark Pawsey, has stepped up recently to offer his thoughts on this incredibly complex, entrenched and sensitive issue. Below is the text of the email I've just written to him. I've also put in an FOI request to Warwickshire County Council, asking for more information about site provision in Warwickshire - I'll report back, and may follow up with the same request to Rugby Borough Council - which, by the way, has a Conservative majority, and as I note below, has still expressed concern at the impact of the cuts.
I write following your recent comments in the Westminster Hall debate on Unauthorised Encampments of the 8th September, 2010. Your statement displayed a failure to acknowledge, and perhaps a lack of understanding of, the challenges facing Gypsies and Travellers in the UK and the lives that have already been needlessly lost. It certainly appeared as if you were failing to represent those of your constituents who are themselves Gypsies and Travellers, or who support their right to pursue their legally recognised traditional way of life.
Due to government legislation, planning restrictions and sale of public land, the number of safe and legal stopping places for Gypsies and Travellers have been dramatically reduced. Gypsy families therefore often have to prioritise finding appropriate places to stop over attending preventative medical appointments such as smear tests and pre- and postnatal checks. A Department of Health study from 2004 found that coping with eviction, discrimination and poor living conditions is seen by Gypsies as being a primary cause of ill-health, particularly among women, facing the massive challenges of raising children ‘in situations where there may be no running water, shared toilets, leaking roofs and no washing machine’.
Due to widespread and persistent racism, particularly among support staff, and suspicion of conventional medicine, Gypsies and Travellers are more likely to see easy-access or peripatetic medical staff than to establish a relationship with 'the GP, practice nurse, a counsellor, chiropodist, dentist, optician, or alternative medical workers’. Thus they often do not understand or access their entitlements to preventative medicine such as childhood immunisations, antenatal checks and smear tests, and may put off seeking healthcare advice, or may under-use or discard prescriptions and medication.
As a result, medical conditions which can easily be controlled go unmonitored and unmedicated, or else medication is not reviewed and any side effects are not followed up. Gypsies are proven to suffer disproportionally from illness associated with poverty and poor living conditions, such as asthma, chest infections, heart disease, and disability, smoking and alcohol-related illnesses.
For Gypsy women these inequalities have severe consequences. The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in 2002 found that of the disproportionately high number of Gypsy mothers who died during the period of study, almost all died either directly due to substandard care or as a result of associated problems. Their children are also at risk. Although the Department of Health found similar levels of common problems such as morning sickness, pre-term birth, breech presentation, or post-natal depression, miscarriage and Caesarean delivery were more common among Gypsy women. Incredibly, 17.6% of Gypsy and Traveller women studied had experienced the death of a child, compared with 0.9% of the comparators. Gypsy infants were found to have ‘low birth weight, low immunisation uptake and high child accident rate’, and there was a markedly high incidence of stillbirths.
In the case of Gypsy and Traveller mothers and babies, it is clear that the 'cycle of enforced nomadism' and lack of government leadership has lead to unnecessary deaths – and this is just one small area of policy. In this context, it is irresponsible and short-sighted to support public authorities in a knee-jerk, populist approach to retrospective Gypsy and Traveller planning applications without taking account of, and engaging with the wider problem. Rugby Borough Council has itself expressed concern at the impacts of the cuts and scrapping of targets implemented by the Coalition Government.
I urge you to take the earliest opportunity to outline how you will support a balanced and responsible approach to this issue, in all its complexity. I particularly recommend reading the 2004 Department of Health Study by Van Cleemput and Parry. I would also be delighted to brief you personally, at your convenience, if this would be helpful.
Yours sincerely
Laura Hudson
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