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While travellers are considered, probably too romantically, by some as a modern day equivalent of Romany gypsies and Irish tinkers, they are in reality a commercial phenomena. Solutions to the challenges they create should, therefore, be economic. (530 words)

By being mobile, travellers are able to take advantage of seasonality of economy activity and employment in a variety of activities including agriculture, tourism and even residential gardens. In doing this they provide services to society which would otherwise not be available or would be more expensive, particularly if undertaken legitimately.

The challenge lies in the reality that the regulatory infrastructure on which society depends, and the law that supports it, is designed around the assumption that everyone has fixed abodes. By being mobile travellers effectively avoid or evade much of this.

The most evident example of this is the assumption that as everyone has to live somewhere, taxes on property are an inclusive and fair means of funding local government activity. And this might be extended to travellers if they were inclined to use and pay rent to established camp grounds which would in turn pay property taxes.

Too often these camp sites, which tend to be provided by local governments, are full. Groups of travellers are well practised in simply occupying any piece of ground which suits their purpose. And the police seem either ineffective in, or unconcerned about, upholding the law when this happens.

The local government is then left with the challenge of providing temporary services at these sites which are often not suited to the purpose they are being put. And the landowner has to bear the cost of the legal process of eviction. And the travellers in turn have little interest in "maintaining their environment." When they move on, they almost always leave behind a very visible legacy of waste from their residency and industry for the landowner, often the local council, to clean up.

Not surprising it is this legacy, rather than their economic contribution to the economy, that shapes people's opinion of them.

In theory the solution is simple. Higher rents at official sites would encourage investment in more sites eliminating the need for illegal encampments. Judging from the equipment that the travellers bring with them, they surely have the resources to pay higher rents. In practice, however, this is unlikely to work while the police continue to be ineffective in prevent free illegal encampments.

An alternative solution would be to apply the equivalent of municipal taxes on their mobile homes and use the revenue raised to cover the costs of providing services to them. In essence they would be treated like everyone else. This could be implemented by charging them a residency tax on their vehicle licenses. And the system could be policed in a similar manner to conventional vehicle licenses.

It would, of course, involve the participation of central government which has the responsibility for vehicle licensing. But central government has in the past tended to distance itself from this issue limiting itself to prescribing how local governments can address the challenge.

Local governments will almost certainly continue to be left to meet the challenge, more hindered than helped, by central government.

November 11, 2004