Gypsies and Travellers

Legal Obligations

The following provides a brief summary of just some of the legal obligations that are relevant to both us, as a local authority, and to the wider traveller community:

Housing and Planning Act 2016 - Section 124 of the Housing & Planning Act 2016 now effectively requires that the housing needs of the traveller community are no longer considered separately from the rest of the settled community. See Assessing Needs.

Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (2015) – This revised document updates the version published in 2012. Of particular note:

• It amends the planning definition of travellers to limit it to those who have a nomadic habit of life, meaning that where someone has given up travelling permanently they should be treated no differently from the settled population.
• It requires local authorities to set pitch targets for Gypsies and Travellers and plot targets for Travelling Showpeople which address the likely permanent and transit site accommodation needs of their area.

Equality Act (2010) – Local authorities have a duty under the Equality Act to actively seek to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality and promote good race relations. The Act does not define race, however, case law has established that Roma gypsies and Irish travellers are covered by the protected characteristics of race for the Equality Act 2010.

Visit - Traveller caravan count

Assessing the Needs of Gypsies, Travellers and Showpeople

The Housing Act 2004 placed a duty on local authorities to separately assess the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers.
However, Section 124 of the Housing & Planning Act 2016 now removes that requirement and, instead, specifies that local housing authorities should consider the needs of people "residing in or resorting to their district with respect to the provision of sites on which caravans can be stationed, or places on inland waterways where houseboats can be moored".

Draft guidance published by DCLG in March 2016 sets out how it expects local authorities to interpret this provision.

Previous Needs Assessments
In 2017, Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils - working in conjunction with Ipswich Borough Councils, and Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District Councils - commissioned RRR Consultancy to deliver an "Accommodation Needs Assessment" for Gypsies, Travellers, Travelling Showpeople and Boat Dwellers in relevant parts of Suffolk.

The report can be downloaded below:

Accommodation Needs Assessment for Gypsies, Travellers, Travelling Showpeople and Boat Dwellers (2017)
This updates the previously published Gypsy, Traveller & Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Assessment (Oct 2013), and before that, the Suffolk Cross-Boundary

GTAA (2007), both of which had been commissioned by the same five local authorities.

Unauthorised Encampments

An unauthorised encampment is where any person(s) camp on land that they do not own. Within the travelling community, temporary unauthorised encampments typically occur on an occasional or seasonal basis.

The Suffolk Unauthorised Encampments Protocol - to which Babergh and Mid Suffolk are signatories - seeks to:

• Address the needs for effective management of unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller encampments, whilst ensuring the rights of the Gypsies, Travellers and the settled community are met
• Ensure the county, district and borough councils are working together will all agencies to meet the needs of Gypsies, Travellers and settled communities

If the site is owned by either local authority we can take action. If the land is in private ownership or is owned by another public body we cannot take any direct action, but we will operate under the terms of the Protocol.

Should you wish to report an unauthorised encampment in Babergh or Mid Suffolk, please complete the form available from the Norfolk & Suffolk Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Service. 

Alternatively you can call 01603 989779.