The Race Relations Act 1976 ('the RRA') can potentially be used by
travellers for protection from discrimination. The RRA makes it unlawful to
discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on the grounds of race in the
areas of employment, education, training, housing and the provision of goods and
services.
The definition of 'race' includes 'ethnic origin' . For a
'traveller' complainant to come within the scope of the RRA, he or she must
first establish membership of a distinct ethnic group.
There are
examples of complainants who have done this successfully, perhaps most notably
in the case of CRE v.
Dutton in 1988. In that case the Court of Appeal held that Romany Gypsies
were an ethnic group within the meaning of the RRA.
More recently, in
the case of O'Leary (brought by the CRE on behalf of a group of Irish
travellers), the County Court accepted that the Irish travellers are a distinct
ethnic group . Although only at County Court level, this case is of persuasive
value on this point given the volume of expert evidence presented to the Court.
There are currently no examples relating to travellers of other ethnic
origin, such as Scottish or Welsh travellers. Should any members of such a group
ever put this question beore a court, the example of O'Leary suggests that the
court will base its decision on reliable expert evidence.
Both the
Dutton and O'Leary cases dealt with discrimination in the provision of goods and
services. In each case the complaint centred on pubs refusing to serve the
travellers. In a more recent case taken by the CRE on behalf of two Gypsy women
the court has found discrimination by a local authority in the way in which it
treated them when providing a venue for a wedding reception.
The
significance of these cases is that once the hurdle of being accepted as a
distinct ethnic groupis overcome, the RRA can provide protection from
discrimination in a variety of fields, including education, housing, planning
and employment.
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), and local Race
Equality Councils, can provide advice with regard to complaints of racial
discrimination, and may in some circumstances assist individuals in taking cases
under the Race Relations Act.
Northern
Ireland
The RRA does not apply to Northern Ireland. Irish tarvellers
are protected in Northern Ireland under the Race Relations (Northern Ireland)
Order 1997.
Northern Ireland also has its own separate equality
bodies - the CRE (NI), the Fair Employment Commission, the Equal Opportunities
Commission (NI), and the Disability Council - were merged to form a new Equality
Commission. The body has worked alongside the new Human Rights Commission for
Northern Ireland since 1 October 1999, and it is the Equality Commission who
would provide advice and assistance in Northern Ireland.
Where can
you stop legally, and park and live in a caravan?
• Own land: a piece of land you own, which has
any necessary planning permission.
• Someone else's land: a piece of land owned by
someone else, including a local council, which is laid out as a site with any
necessary planning permission, with a site licence and where the site operator
and yourself have agreed you can stay.
• Camping for short periods or for purposes of
agriculture or forestry: a piece of land, not necessarily laid out as a
site, where no planning permission or site licence for the parking of an
inhabited caravan is required because you are doing seasonal agricultural or
forestry work for the landowner (usually a farmer), or in a limited number of
other cases where you are staying for short periods on open fields.
•
Land use of ten years' duration: a piece
of land where one or more caravans have remained continuously for over ten years
and where no valid planning enforcement notice has been served nor planning
application turned down during that time. In these cases, if you own the land or
the landowner allows you to stay, you can apply for a Certificate of Lawful
Established Use and Development (CLEUD) and that Certificate is the same as full
planning permission. If you can prove that caravans have been on the land since
at least 1963 or even 1948, then the local planning authority will not be able
to take planning enforcement action against that number of caravans or
fewer.
Gypsies and other
Travelling people may be subject to a number of legal powers to move them
on if they are on what is known as an unauthorised encampment. Lack of legal
stopping places in the United Kingdom means that travelling is not necessarily a
problem, but stopping may sometimes be. Whilst Protocol 4 of the European
Convention on Human Rights protects freedom of movement, the United Kingdom has
not yet ratified this Protocol. The protocol has not been incorporated into UK
law via the Human Rights Act 1998. The Council of Europe has issued a resolution
calling on all Member States to enact laws which safeguard the cultural heritage
and identity of nomads, and which stop any form of discrimination against
nomads, but this is not legally enforceable in the United Kingdom.
A Good
Practice Guide to Managing Unauthorised Camping was issued to all local and
police authorities by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions (DETR) in October 1998. It summarises the law relating to such
encampments and states that local authorities should work with the police to
create a policy for their area in relation to such encampments. It states that
eviction is only one means of dealing with them, and other measures - such as
site provision - should be considered.
Local authorities have
powers under sections 77-79 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order
Act 1994 to move travelling people from land - including the highway.
These powers are constrained by guidance and case law - for example, R v. Lincolnshire County Council
ex parte Atkinson (1995) which states that they must take into account
considerations of common humanity as well as their statutory obligations to
travelling people under such legislation as the Children Act, Housing Acts,
Education Acts and so on. In practice, this means that local authorities must
liaise with the Travelling people and undertake an assessment of their needs
before considering whether or not to proceed with an
eviction.
The police
have powers under the Highways Acts to move
travelling people on if they are obstructing the highway. They also have powers
under section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order
Act 1994 to direct trespassers to leave private land where:
• The
landowner has taken action to request that the trespassers leave and they do not
do so; and
• There are six or more vehicles on the land; or
•
Damage has been caused to the land, or there has been abusive, threatening or
insulting behaviour by the trespassers.
The police also have powers under
section 62 of the 1994 Act to seize and impound the vehicles of travelling
people who are directed to leave land under section 61 and do not do so in a
reasonable time. It is likely that a disproportionate use of this power would
violate Article 1 of the
First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights as well as
Articles 8 and 14.
The evidence suggests that the police use this power rarely, if at all, although
they frequently threaten to use it.
The Association of Police Officers
has issued guidance in relation to the use of police powers, a copy of which can
be obtained from the Traveller Law Research
Unit. It suggests that the police should act in co-operation with local
authorities, and describes the circumstances in which it might be appropriate to
use section 61 powers, such as when dealing with very large groups of travelling
people on unsafe or highly unsuitable land.
A person who stops
on land belonging to - or under the control of - another, commits the
tort of trespass if he does so without that person's permission. Procedures
exist which enable the person claiming possession of the land to apply to the
High Court or the County Court to obtain an eviction order. These require that -
where the person entered the land as a trespasser - that the Court make a
forthwith eviction order. This automatic right to a court eviction order is
unlikely to withstand the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998,
particularly if it is a public body applying for the eviction.
In Buckley v. UK the European
Court of Human Rights held that eviction proceedings may interfere with a
Gypsy's right to respect for his home - under Article 8 - even where the
caravan was unlawfully on the land. Thus public bodies will generally be
required to establish that the proceedings pursue one of the legitimate aims
listed in Article
8(2) and that eviction is not disproportionate. The court hearing this
claim, as a public body itself, will also be bound by the provisions of section
6 of the Act. It cannot, therefore, maintain its present procedure of
automatically making an immediate order for possession once entitlement to
possession has been established. Such an absolute entitlement - as presently
embodied in the Court Rules - is clearly contrary to the concept of
proportionality.
There are many powers to prosecute
and/or move on Travellers - or anyone else - under the Highways Acts. The
highway is generally defined as including the greensward on either side of the
metalled carriageway. Where the Traveller has been on the land for any period of
time, or has traditionally resorted to the land, the authority seeking to evict
will need to establish that the proceedings pursue one of the legitimate aims
listed in Article 8(2) of
the European Convention on Human Rights and that eviction is not
disproportionate. The legal presumption that any camping constitutes an
obstruction of the highway, legitimating eviction will almost certainly be
curtailed by the Human
Rights Act 1998. If there is no actual highway danger, then automatic
eviction will not comply with the balancing requirements of Article
8.
Some local authority areas have bye-laws that prohibit
Gypsies, squatters and other persons from camping on certain land or within a
specified distance of dwelling houses. A characteristic of such bye-laws is that
they enable the authorised body to remove trespassers without the necessity of a
court order; all that is required is that the trespasser has been requested to
leave the land and has failed to do so. Such bye-laws accordingly sanction any
eviction, no matter how disproportionate or unjust. Section 23(2) of the Caravan Sites
and Control of Development Act 1960, for instance, empowers District
Councils to make orders which prohibit absolutely the stationing of caravans on
commons or waste land, that is, the blanket exclusion of Gypsies from the very
places where they have traditionally camped - without any requirement that the
absolute prohibition be in anyway justified. Such bye-laws would seem to offend
the principles of balance and respect for traditional lifestyles inherent in the
European Convention on Human
Rights. Indeed, case law suggests that such bye-laws are probably already
unlawful in that they contravene our common law, being manifestly partial and
unequal in their operation between different groups of people.
Either
by choice, or because of a lack of adequate sites and the difficulty of
life on the road, many travelling people live in housing. The Housing Act 1996 and
associated Code of
Practice state that a person is homeless if they have a mobile dwelling
and nowhere legal to place it.
Under the legislation the housing
department may be under a duty to provide you with accommodation if you are
judged to be homeless - for example, you are being evicted from a piece of land
or a highway verge, and you have nowhere legal to go and live in your caravan,
and have a priority need for accommodation - if you have children living with
you, or elderly or disabled people. If it is decided that you are homeless and
have such a priority need, then the council can avoid its duty to provide you
with accommodation only by showing either that you have a local connection with
another council's area that is stronger than your connection with theirs, or
that you made yourself intentionally homeless - for example, you were in housing
or on a legal site, perhaps even some time ago, but left this legal
accommodation for no good reason, or for a reason which was the fault of you or
a member of your family living with you.
Housing departments are advised
that they should consider the needs of applicants under homelessness legislation
and, as far as is possible, provide them with suitable accommodation. This may
include providing such persons with a pitch on a public site rather than with
housing. However, this is discretionary and, in areas where there are no
available pitches, travelling people will be offered housing.
If you are
looking for settled accommodation, or even if you want to put your name on a
waiting list for a possible caravan site, you should visit the local council
housing offices, preferably in the area that you have most connection with,
unless there is a good reason for selecting another area - risk of violence from
another member of the family or someone else, for example. When you visit the
housing offices, ask them what sort of provision is available. Do they have a
site for travelling people? Does it have spare places on it? Where is it and how
do they decide who goes on to it? If you have no interest in such a site,
instead give the housing officer all the details about your living arrangements
in your caravan. Remember that there are two separate ways of getting council
accommodation and that you can apply to be put on a council house waiting list
without being homeless. Before you leave the council office, ask them for a
record of your applications, and ask them to let you know their decisions in
writing. Keep all the paper they give you in a safe place. If you apply to be
dealt with as homeless, the council housing department should give you a quick
answer. If necessary, visit them regularly. Find out the name of the housing
officer or other person that you need to speak to and try to speak to the same
person each time. If you are applying for a council house - or social housing
provided by a housing association, as is now more common, make sure you keep in
contact with the housing department by telephone or letter as the council house
waiting lists are revised every six months or year in many areas and you have to
make sure that you stay on the list each time until they make you an offer. It
is possible to be on more than one council house waiting list at
once.
Finally, you have the right to see all information on the housing
department files. You may have to pay a charge if you want copies. If you do not
read, or feel more confident with someone assisting you, then ask a sympathetic
councillor, council Travellers' officer, teacher, health visitor or some other
person that you trust to go with you on those visits. They will not only give
you assistance, but also act as an independent witness.
Everyone has a right to healthcare from the National
Health Service. What this means in practice is that no hospital should ever turn
away someone who is the victim of accident or illness, whoever that person is
and whether or not they have paid any national insurance contributions. When you
go to a dentist or take a prescription to the chemist, however, you will only
get certain benefits free or at a reduced price if you are a child, someone who
suffers from a long-term illness or disability -for example, diabetes - or if
you receive income support, a pension or family credit.
Although many
Travellers go to casualty departments when they have an accident or illness, it
is much more sensible to register with a local doctor if you are in an area, or
expect to be, for more than a few weeks. Lists of doctors should be available at
main Post Offices, and the best way is to visit the doctor you pick from the
list and give her or him the exact details of those members of your family who
wish to register with them - dates of birth, and so on. Some doctors are
prevented from taking extra people onto their list if it is already too long,
and so you may have to go to several doctors before you find one that will allow
you to register with her or him. If you are turned down by all the doctors,
whether or not it is because you are a Traveller, find the address and phone
number of the Health Authority and/or the Community Health Council in the local
phone book. Contact them - if possible in writing, after a telephone call -
telling them that you have been turned down by the doctors concerned, the
reasons you have been given by the doctors, and any other reasons you believe
may have affected the decision.
If there is an accident or illness within
your family and you believe it may be unsafe to move the person concerned, you
can telephone any local doctor and ask for emergency help. Try to make sure that
there is somebody else with you when you make that call, if that is possible, so
there is no doubt that you made it and when you made it.
In practice,
health visitors may have more contact with your family and friends, especially
around the time that any children are born. Ask a health visitor for advice
about registering with a doctor and for help with getting your rights to
healthcare, even if you are regularly being moved from place to place.
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