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GYPSIES/TRAVELLERS IN SCOTLAND
The Twice-yearly Count - No. 3

COUNCIL SITES

Levels of provision

The Scottish Office (now Executive) funding scheme to encourage Scottish local authorities to make site provision for Gypsies/Travellers was introduced in 1971. The first site was not opened until 1978 and the subsequent pace of site provision was slow, generally only one or two sites in any one year, with the exception of 1982 (5) and 1989 (6). The funding scheme came to an end in December 1998, although at this date five Councils had already applied for funding to provide an additional six sites. Funding was expected still to be made available for these outstanding applications together with upgrading of eight existing sites for which applications had been made. Although by early 1997 the total of sites had risen to 35, across 24 Councils, it remained at this figure until the middle of 2002.

Table 1 summarises Council site provision in January 2003. Since the time of the last winter count two additional Council sites have come into use.

• A third site in Fife, with 12 pitches, opened at Kelty in the summer of 2002, bringing the Council's total of pitches to 50 (although open at the time of the July count, information for Fife was not available in time for inclusion in the summary report on the July 2002 count).
• The first site in East Dunbartonshire, with 15 pitches at Lennoxtown, opened at the end of 2002.

Table 1 - Council site and pitch provision as at January 2003

Councils with no site provision: E. Ayrshire; E. Renfrewshire; Inverclyde; the three Islands Councils
* Additional Fife site opened in summer 2002
** New E. Dunbartonshire site opened at end of 2002
*** One pitch on the Arran site is allocated to the site manager and is therefore not available for normal tenancy.

With two new sites, the total rises to 37, almost 600 pitches for Gypsies/Travellers having been provided with Scottish Executive funding over the past 25 years.

Most Councils have only one site, though three Councils each have two, three now have three and one has four, including a summer-only site.

With the opening of the site in East Dunbartonshire, all but three of the 29 mainland Councils have now provided sites (East and Midlothian are linked for the purposes of site provision and make a joint return). No sites have been provided in East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire or Inverclyde. No requirement for site provision has been identified in the three Islands Councils.

Three sites (Aberdeenshire, Highland [Kentallen], and Scottish Borders - with a total of 37 pitches), are always closed in winter. However, two other sites, accounting for a total of 42 pitches, have not been available for use for some time: one of three in North Lanarkshire, with 26 pitches, has never been occupied since expansion and upgrading in 1996, and the 16-pitch Renfrewshire site was totally vandalised in 1998 and has not yet been rebuilt. The official status of another North Lanarkshire site with 16 pitches remains unclear - while it has had only very sporadic use since it opened in early 1997 and its pitches are currently classed by the Council as 'not available for let' it was occupied at the time of the summer count in 2002 and so it has been regarded as an active site for the purposes of the present count.

The 37 sites so far developed provide a total of 599 pitches. Allowing for 37 pitches on seasonal sites and 42 on two 'closed' sites, a total of 520 pitches was theoretically available in January 2003.

Most sites provide around 15 to 20 pitches but sizes range from as few as six up to as many as 30. While over the years a number of sites have been substantially upgraded only three have been expanded in size (Aberdeen, increased from 20 to 30 in 2001; Angus from 15 to 18 in 2000; and a currently closed site North Lanarkshire from 20 to 26 in 1996).

Levels of use

Most tenanted pitches are occupied by their tenants at the time of the count. However, some tenants may be temporarily absent, as generally allowed by tenancy agreements. Together, these two groups provide the prime indicator of level of site use. Of the 520 pitches identified above as theoretically available, 357 (69 %) had tenants in January 2003, just over three quarters of these being on-site at the time.

Of the vacant pitches, most remain available for letting. However, even on otherwise normally functioning sites, some such pitches may not be available for use at the time of the count. These are generally pitches out of action as a result of vandalism or awaiting repair or upgrading. Only nine out of the 32 'active' sites had any such pitches. In most instances any one site may have only one or two unavailable pitches at any one time though, on a small site, this can represent a significant proportion, but particular circumstances may distort the picture. At the time of the January count, as well as all 16 on one North Lanarkshire site, a second site in the Council had three-quarters of its 16 pitches out of action as a result of vandalism. Similarly, seven out of ten pitches on one Argyll & Bute site were unavailable and again there were references to frequent vandalism on the site.

• In total 357 pitches were tenanted.
• 276 (53%) were occupied at the time of the count.
• 81 (16%) were let but with temporarily absent tenants.
• A small number of pitches (8%) were classed as not available for use.
• 120, nearly a quarter (23%) of all pitches theoretically available, remained unoccupied.

The overall tenancy level of 69%, close to the similar figure of 71% for the same period in 2002, conceals much higher levels of use on some sites. Figure 1 shows the patterns of use for the active sites, ranked in descending order of the proportion of tenanted pitches, both occupied and with absent tenants at the time of the count. Nine sites had all their pitches tenanted and a further seven had between 80-95% tenanted, the other three having a few families temporarily away. At the other end of the scale a similar number of sites had lower use levels with half or less of tenanted pitches.

Tenancy levels on individual sites fairly closely mirror those at the same period last year, whether at the high or low ends of the scale. However, there are some marked differences. The Highland (Inverness) and Glasgow sites are now back to very high levels of use, whereas half or less of their pitches were tenanted a year ago. On the other hand, Clackmannanshire, which was completely full in January 2002 now has only about two-thirds of its pitches in use. Two other sites with marked change are the Falkirk site, which was still closed in January 2002 after fire damage, but is now back in use, albeit with only half its pitches tenanted, and the N. Lanarkshire (Airdrie) site which had three quarters of its pitches tenanted a year ago but is now empty with its pitches classed as unavailable. Stirling also shows a drop from last year in level of use but, as with Clackmannanshire, this reflects particular circumstances referred to below.

Tenant Movement

Council site regulations generally enable tenants to leave their pitch for short periods in the year without relinquishing their tenancy. Moving off for such periods may be the result of work opportunities or visits to family elsewhere and tends to be more common in the summer as Gypsies/Travellers are generally fairly static in winter. Figure 2 shows the proportion of tenants absent from each site at the time of the January 2003 count and compares these with the figures for a year earlier, illustrating the extent to which patterns change from year to year (the figure excludes sites with all pitches tenanted and occupied at both dates: Angus; Argyll & Bute [Dunoon]; Clackmannanshire; Dumfries & Galloway [Dumfries and Glenluce]; N Ayrshire [Irvine]; N. Lanarkshire [Coatbridge]; Perth & Kinross; S Ayrshire; S Lanarkshire [E. Kilbride]). Certain sites stand out by their fairly high levels of absence at one or both dates. On balance, levels of absence were markedly higher in January 2003 and only on one site (Dundee) was the position reversed. Highest for both dates is the Glasgow site not just with four out of five of its tenants away in January 2002 but with all of them away in 2003, the result of a sudden outbreak of violence on the site shortly before the count. Other sites in the central belt with between a third and two thirds of their tenants temporarily away may similarly have been affected in 2003, judging by comments given either on the count form or orally by site managers and even the newly opened E. Dunbartonshire site was apparently affected in this way, with one in five absent at the time of the count.

As well as the number of tenants recorded as absent at the time of the count itself, the count form asks for a general estimate of the proportion of tenants on each site who have been away for short periods over the preceding six months. Across all the sites, some two in five had been absent at some time during the second half of 2002. Of 27 sites , four (Argyll & Bute [N. Ledaig]; Dumfries & Galloway [Glenluce]; N. Lanarkshire [Coatbridge]; and Perth & Kinross) had had no-one away and six (Dumfries & Galloway [Dumfries]; Fife [Cupar and Kelty]; Glasgow; Highland [Inverness and Spean Bridge])) noted that all their tenants had been away at some point. Figure 3 again compares the patterns for January 2003 and 2002 for those sites for which data was available for both counts (in 2002 E. Dunbartonshire and Fife [Kelty] were not open; Falkirk was temporarily closed after a fire; two other sites: N. Lanarkshire [Coatbridge] and Perth & Kinross are excluded from the figure as having no tenants absent over either period). While the overall proportion for both years is similar, individual sites clearly vary markedly in the extent of temporary movement, though with no clear pattern.

Length of stay on sites

One measure of the stability of a site is the length of time its tenants have had it as their base. Figure 4 shows duration of tenancy. Across 30 sites for which figures were available, nearly half the sites have had almost half their tenants for more than two years and a further one in five for between one and two years. However, unlike January 2002, none still had all their tenants in the longest category. The three sites which did so at that time (Perth & Kinross; N. Ayrshire [Arran]; and Argyll & Bute [Lochgilphead]) each appear to have lost some of their longest-term residents. At the short-term tenancy end of the scale it must be recognised that these are only fairly recent arrivals and they may go on to stay for long periods in the future.

• 44% of tenants had been there for more than two years.
• 19% had been there for between one and two years.
• 13% had been there for between six and twelve months.
• 12% had been there for between three and six months.
• 12% had been there for three months or less.

Tenancy change

Another measure of stability is turnover of pitches. Of 31 sites for which information was available turnover was moderate overall, some 18 percent of the total pitches on these sites (compared to 15 percent in January 2002). On 11 sites no pitches changed hands within the previous six months and all but one of the remainder had under 5 pitches changing. The greatest number of changes was on the Highland [Inverness] site with 28. Figure 5 shows the tenancy change as a percentage of total pitches on the 20 sites where there had been change (NB - the figures excludes the 140 percent on the Highland site).

Waiting for vacancies

Waiting lists for places on sites are not common, and even where they exist they are generally small in real numbers. Eighteen sites had no families waiting for places and nine had five or fewer applicants. However, six had longer lists, with eight waiting for space on the new E. Dunbartonshire site, and nine each for the E/Midlothian and W. Dunbartonshire sites. However, demand for a particular site can be more clearly expressed in terms of the numbers waiting as a proportion of the site's capacity as shown in Figure 6 where the Edinburgh site's list equalled the total existing pitches while the new Fife (Kelty) site which had been open for little over six months had 1.5 applicants waiting for each of its pitches. Generally sites with waiting lists were also those with high proportions of long stay tenants (those resident for a year or more). Of the 14 sites with a waiting list, 11 had at least half of their tenants in the long-stay category, including eight with at least three-quarters.

Most sites (22 out of 32) appear to have turned no-one away on account of lack of vacancies. Those which have done so, not surprisingly include many of the sites with waiting lists. However, others without waiting lists such as the two S. Lanarkshire sites and the sites in Perth & Kinross and Angus are long established and well settled sites with high proportions of long-stay tenants and much less likelihood of vacancies occurring.

Compared to waiting lists for conventional housing, those for sites may not always be a reliable measure of demand and more an expression of interest or desire, since a family may have moved elsewhere or lost interest by the time a vacancy occurs, but not informed the site. However, certain sites may be more regularly in demand perhaps because they are seen as stable or having particularly good management/tenant history.

Of sites recording untenanted and therefore available pitches at the time of the count, only one, with a single vacant pitch, had turned potential tenants away for lack of vacancies, having had to refuse as many as eight families.

Of the sites with vacant pitches at the time of the count only three had families on a waiting list - quite possible with families which move from place to place and may not be contactable when a vacancy occurs - including Clackmannanshire, with four empty pitches and Perth & Kinross and Edinburgh each with one.

People

On 30 sites in January 2003 the count recorded a total of 280 households actually occupying pitches, a total of 931 people (the Glasgow site, though active, was temporarily empty due to a violent incident a few days earlier). While the number of both households and people was slightly down on the January 2002 figure, the mean number of people per household of 3.3 was slightly higher, attributable in part to two sites with substantially larger mean household size. In practice the number of households recorded in the counts varies to some extent from year to year and between seasons. Previous winter counts have ranged from 278 in January 1999 to 305 in 2002.

Mean household size on individual sites varied from 1.7 to 5.9. Figure 7 shows the pattern across the sites, ranked against the overall mean (in this Figure, bracketed numbers after the site name indicate the number of households on site at the time of count).

Profiles of the January 2003 population on Council sites (Figure 8) remain very consistent with those from earlier winter counts. Older people continue to account for only a very small share of the total. Again there are marked variations in this share from site to site. While it must be remembered that numbers of residents on individual sites are often small and therefore percentages for a given age band inevitably are crude, it is interesting to note the similarities between January 2003 and 2002 (Table 2) in terms of the proportion of older residents. Those with no older people (aged 65/60+), amounting to half the 2003 sites, also had none the previous winter. Both those with proportions of older residents around the mean figure (i.e. 3-7 percent) and substantially above it (over 10 percent) again broadly match the picture in 2002. High proportions of older residents appear more common among some of the long-established and generally static sites with all but one of those with any older residents having well over half their tenants living there for a year or more and nearly all of these for over two years.

Table 2 - Proportion of older people in Council site population : January 2002 and 2003

Of sites for which it was possible to match data at both dates, the following had no older residents at either date: Highland (Inverness; Spean Bridge), Dumfries & Galloway (Dumfries), Stirling, Moray, S. Ayrshire, N. Ayrshire (Arran; Irvine), W. Lothian, Argyll & Bute (Dunoon).

The proportion of very young children on a site is much more variable between the years. With a mean of 13 percent of very young children across all sites in January 2003, a few sites recorded proportions well above this figure and on eight sites this age group accounted for at least one in five of their population (Argyll & Bute [Dunoon]; E. Dunbartonshire; Highland [Kentallen]; Argyll & Bute [N. Ledaig]; W. Lothian; Dundee; Stirling; Aberdeen]).

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