Help us fight for homes for London’s Gypsies and Travellers
We know you’d agree that everyone deserves a safe, affordable and suitable home. No new Council-run Traveller sites have been built in the capital for over 30 years leaving London’s Gypsies and Travellers in overcrowded homes, families stuck in substandard temporary accommodation for years and harassment and abuse for those living roadside. London’s Gypsies and Travellers are calling on their allies to help change that with one quick action.
For the first time, the Mayor’s draft London Plan says that local councils should
- Build a specific, minimum number of pitches in each borough over the next ten years.
- Provide stopping places (transit sites) or adopt a more humane approach to people practicing the cultural tradition of travelling/ living roadside (Negotiated Stopping) or both.
This is the result of decades of community campaigning – but now the community needs your help.
We know there will be opposition to this. Some local Local Authorities will lobby to remove these requirements from the Plan. And the hostile media and political environment put pressure on decision makers to water down their commitments.
Let the Mayor know you stand with Gypsies and Travellers by sending our email template before the consultation closes on Thursday 15th October. Insert your name and email address, press submit and the text below will be sent to the Mayor under your name. You can also send your own, personalised message from your email account to londonplan@london.gov.uk
Dear Sadiq Khan
I am writing as an ally of London’s Gypsy and Traveller communities. For decades, councils have let them down by failing to provide new sites. This London Plan can end that.
The draft Plan makes welcome progress by including minimum pitch targets for councils. I am concerned that the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers will continue to go unmet without them. Thirty years with no new council sites in London is proof of this. The numbers are an undercount, but it’s a start.
I also support the Plan’s more humane approach to people who live roadside, including the provision of suitable stopping places and approaches such as negotiated stopping. This is long overdue. Families living on the road are targeted by the police and councils for practicing their travelling culture.
To be fit for purpose, these points should be kept in your Plan. Gypsies and Travellers are Londoners too. They are our friends and neighbours and their accommodation needs must be properly addressed for London to be a fair, diverse and inclusive city.