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For the third time in five years Postwick has been visited by Travellers(See footnote). They moved on after about ten days when a remedy of poultry manure made things sufficiently unpleasant for them. The police as usual seem to have ignored them.

It took five people six hours and 80 bin liners to clean up the mess they left, and that excluded commercial as opposed to domestic refuse. Multiply these figures by 30 and you have an idea of the mess they create in a full year.

We are told that we should be tolerant, but not why.

These people seem to be well off. They own fancy vehicles and their children drive around all day long on quad bikes. They do not seem to have any religious or ethnic minority affiliation. They appear to associate with each other simply to exploit fear amongst those who oppose them.

While ultimately some form of community action will be necessary, we can as individuals help. Travellers are depend for their livelihood on casual work, such as tree pruning. If we avoided using them and encouraged our neighbours to do the same, the area would become unattractive to them.

They can be identified by the fact that they only have mobile phones. Please, avoid patronizing businesses that do not have a normal phone number.

August 21, 2002

Footnote: Postwick is a small rural village of about 300 souls, adjacent to but detached from the urban area of Norwich which has a population well in excess of 100,000. Travellers spend the summer months living in caravans which they generally park in any convenient open area without permission of the owner.

They find casual work in the neighbourhood moving on when such economic opportunities are exhausted. They seem to have little interest in their environment leaving their domestic and commercial waste behind them when they leave. In the context of their life style they are 21st century gypsies. And probably for this reason they benefit from some political protection. (340 words)