IN ANSWER to Cllr David Smith’s letter of Thursday, September 1, I would also like a chance to ‘put the record straight’.

Travellers who come into town are only doing what many have done for more than 600 years.

All the old stopping places which had been used over the years have been closed, built on or blocked.

So where does ‘society’ expect them to go?

Instead of saying they cannot stop here or there, isn’t it time Bournemouth council took the lead and looked for appropriate stopping places?

Local councils look for land for redevelopment for social or private housing, so why not for gypsies and travellers?

Please don’t let me hear that old chestnut ‘travellers don’t pay tax and insurance’.

Anyone with any sense knows gypsies and travellers do pay their dues.

I don’t want to hear about the rubbish that travellers supposedly leave behind when they are evicted.

Non-gypsy/travellers repeatedly dump rubbish near my home. I live in the country.

Anti-social behaviour is another accusation. The local press reports on anti-social behaviour almost every day about non-travellers.

Cllr Beesley has in the past said there is no land available for gypsy sites in Bournemouth – three years on that has not changed.

Yet last year he was reported in the Daily Echo as saying that Bournemouth was no longer looking for land for sites.

Why not encourage more travellers to buy land so they are not a ‘burden’ on ‘society’?

Recent ‘have your say’ headlines say it is a ‘duty to serve all of society’ and like it or not travellers are a part of society.

It is about time supposedly-educated people stopped throwing insults against travellers and realise that they are human beings.

BETTY BILLINGTON

Romany Gypsy activist

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