News & events

Updates, information and news from London Gypsies and Travellers

Latest news

Communities unite in Drive to Survive

July 23, 2021

On the 7th of July, London Gypsies and Travellers joined Gypsy, Roma, Traveller people, politicians and allies from other movements in Parliament Square to resist the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The peaceful demonstration was organised by Drive2Survive, a community-led coalition mobilising against the discriminatory measures of the Bill. The demo was the first …

Gypsies and Travellers demand a voice in City Hall

May 20, 2021

London Gypsies and Travellers launches a new tool for writing to the London Assembly to demand a voice for Gypsies and Travellers in City Hall. At the London Gypsy and Traveller Forum hustings event in March, representatives of the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, Conservative Party and Labour Party responded to the Forum Manifesto and heard …

New ruling puts an end to wide injunctions

May 12, 2021

A judgment published today harshly criticises the use of wide injunctions as a blanket ban against Gypsies and Travellers who have nowhere to stop. Wide injunctions against “persons unknown” have been used by local authorities for the past six years to prevent Gypsies and Travellers from stopping on public land, despite councils not making any …

A Mayor for All Londoners?

April 22, 2021

In advance of the elections for Mayor of London and London Assembly on 6th May, London Gypsies and Travellers organised a hustings event focused on the needs and asks of Gypsies and Travellers across the capital. The event took place online on 23rd March and can be watched in full here. Candidates from the Green …

New London Plan finally adopted

March 17, 2021

The London Plan 2021 was published on 2nd March 2021, setting policies for how London will develop over the next 10 years. In February 2019, Gypsies and Travellers spoke up for housing rights at the Plan’s examination hearing. The Plan includes a policy on Gypsy and Traveller accommodation which requires London Boroughs to meet need …

New Bill threatens nomadic way of life

March 15, 2021

A broad group of over 200 organisations supporting human rights have sent a letter today to the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Justice to express profound concerns about the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill published on 9th March. LGT is one of the co-signatories of the letter which highlights the devastating …

Achievements in a unique year

February 9, 2021

Members of the Gypsy and Traveller community joined staff and trustees online for the LGT Annual General Meeting last week, to hear about a unique year for the organisation and the community in London. Presentations at the Zoom event, also streamed live on Facebook, described how COVID-19 had affected Gypsies and Travellers, and how LGT …

Injunctions under review

December 16, 2020

On Thursday 17th December 2020, a major case management hearing will take place ahead of an upcoming High Court case on anti-Traveller wide injunctions, due to be held in January 2021. Since 2015, councils have increasingly used injunctions to prevent Gypsies and Travellers from stopping on council-owned land. The majority of people who pull up …

New challenge to government planning rules

November 26, 2020

A court hearing on 10th and 11th December could determine that the government’s planning definition of Gypsies and Travellers is unlawful. The current planning definition, adopted in 2015, means that Gypsies and Travellers who have permanently stopped travelling in a caravan for work do not have their accommodation needs counted and struggle to get planning …

National Lottery funds new ‘Roadside Futures’ project

October 28, 2020

‘Roadside Futures’ project to improve lives of roadside Gypsies and Travellers across the UK, thanks to National Lottery funding Today, £2million in National Lottery funding has been awarded to ‘Roadside Futures’ which is a project that aims to improve the quality of life for nomadic Gypsies and Travellers and the communities in which they live …