I have spent years working in planning, sitting in fields, on yards, at kitchen tables, and sometimes in silence while people try to explain their lives through tears.
And here is the truth, stripped of policy language and legal jargon:
Gypsy and Traveller families are running out of places to exist.
Not places to thrive.
Not places to live well.
Just… places to exist.
“Why do they keep popping up?”
It’s the question I hear most.
Usually asked with frustration.
Sometimes with anger.
Often with no real interest in the answer.
So here it is, as simply as it can be put.
They “keep popping up” because:
- There are not enough authorised sites
- They are being moved on from roadside stopping
- They are being asked to leave other family yards
- They are being refused permission when they try to create their own
So they move.
And then they move again.
And then they try somewhere else.
Because they have children.
Because they have nowhere else to go.
Because staying still is not an option—and neither is moving.
A System That Closes Every Door
Let’s walk it through.
If a Gypsy or Traveller family stops on the roadside, they now risk criminalisation under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Not just being moved on.
- Arrest
- Vehicle seizure
- Loss of home
So they don’t stop.
If they try to stay with family?
They are often asked to leave.
Not because they’re not wanted—but because:
- Planning conditions are strict
- Yard owners fear enforcement
- Too many caravans = risk of losing permission
So even family land is no longer safe.
So they try to buy land.
Away from people.
Quietly.
With the intention of just living.
And what happens?
- Planning refusal
- Media outrage
- Public hostility
- Claims of falling house prices
They are treated as though they have done something wrong.
For trying to house their children.
So again—what do they do?
They move.
And then people ask:
“Why do they keep popping up?”
Let’s Talk About Housing
There is a belief—often repeated—that these families should just “get a house.”
Let’s be honest.
We are in the middle of a housing crisis.
- Record levels of homelessness
- Families in temporary accommodation for years
- Waiting lists stretching into decades
- Large homes almost impossible to secure
Even local authorities say:
Some people may never be housed.
Now take that system.
And try to fit:
- Large extended families
- Children with additional needs
- Disabled adults
- Cultural requirements around proximity and support
- A Proven Aversion to bricks and Mortar, causing mental health decline
- not factoring housing, 7 times more likely to end their life by suicide
It doesn’t fit.
And even when families do try:
Many don’t last.
Not because they won’t.
Because:
- Isolation sets in
- Mental health declines
- Support networks disappear
This isn’t about unwillingness.
It’s about reality.
What We’re Actually Seeing
After years of this work, the pattern is undeniable.
Families are being pushed:
- Off the roadside
- Out of family yards
- Away from land they try to secure
With nowhere viable to go.
At the same time:
- New sites are not being built at the scale needed
- Existing ones are restricted
- Self-provision is resisted
So families are left in a loop.
A loop of movement.
A loop of enforcement.
A loop of blame.
And Then There’s the Racism
Let’s not pretend it isn’t there.
Families report:
- Being called slurs in public
- Having property damaged
- Being blocked from accessing their own land
- Being treated as a problem before they are even known
And still, they are expected to quietly comply.
With what, exactly?
The Question Nobody Wants to Answer
At some point, we have to stop pretending this is about isolated planning breaches.
And ask the real question:
What is the desired outcome?
Because if:
- You don’t provide sites
- You criminalise stopping
- You restrict family land
- You refuse self-built solutions
- You cannot house people
Then what is left?
This Is About More Than Planning
Gypsy and Traveller communities are among the oldest ethnic minorities in the UK.
Two of those communities—Irish Travellers and Scottish Gypsy/Travellers—are widely recognised as having indigenous status within these islands.
This isn’t a new population.
This isn’t a passing issue.
This is a long-standing cultural presence.
And what we are seeing now is something deeper than policy failure.
When a Way of Life Becomes Impossible
When every route is blocked:
- You cannot travel
- You cannot stop
- You cannot stay with family
- You cannot build
- You cannot access housing
Then something else is happening.
Not accidentally.
Systemically.
You can call it:
- policy failure
- structural exclusion
- planning breakdown
But for the families living it, it feels like something else entirely:
A system that is making their continued way of life impossible.
Let’s Be Clear
These families are not asking for luxury.
They are asking for:
- Somewhere safe
- Somewhere stable
- Somewhere their children can grow up
And right now, the system is telling them:
Not here.
Not there.
Not anywhere.
So I’ll Ask Again
Not as a planner.
Not as an advocate.
As someone who has sat with these families and seen the reality up close.
As A Gypsy woman who would have chosen to live in a chalet on a yard.
What is the plan?
Because if this continues—
If every option remains closed—
Then we are no longer talking about fairness.
We are talking about a system that is, in practice:
making the continued existence of this way of life unviable.
If this were happening to another Indigenous people, with a recognised ethnic status and a protected way of life, what would we be calling it—
Cultural destruction by design, carried out not in a single act, but through a system that makes existence impossible?
