Greg Yates helped to set up the Clearwater Gypsies website which offers training courses encouraging planning officers to think carefully before taking enforcement action.

Health conditions and laws connected with the travelling community are also detailed.

"We are still tweaking it at the moment. Gypsies are the only ethnic group with laws made specifically against them," said Mr Yates, the freehold site owner of Clearwater, West Ashling, Chichester.

"I've been speaking with councils about giving gypsies proper
representation. People take the view we are breaking the law, which is not the case. We are part of the community and have been for half a millennium."

The website highlights that, on average, gypsy men die ten years younger than other ethnic groups and the group has the highest infant mortality rate.

Mr Yates believes these problems can be wiped out if accommodation conditions are improved.

Mr Yates said the group wanted to move away from the 'failures' of the 1968 Caravan Act, where gypsy sites were placed in 'marginalised
locations and far from all local amenities and services'.

The website offers advice on site design, site location, site
management and how to produce the best layout for a site which suits the gypsy community and others living around it. The website received sponsorship, including from Chichester District Council (CDC).

Karen Carter, spokesman for CDC, said: "An application for an enabling grant from Mr Yates to help create a website was made earlier this year, and approved on July 25. As the business was eligible and met all the relevant criteria, it received the maximum grant of £750 (50 per cent of eligible costs).

"The grant made will normally be 50 per cent of eligible costs up to a maximum contribution of £750."

The address for the website is www.clearwatergypsies.com



What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news
Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news
Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP