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GYPSIES/TRAVELLERS IN SCOTLAND: The Twice-yearly Count - No. 6: July 2004

PRIVATELY-OWNED SITES

An alternative option for Gypsies/Travellers who either cannot or prefer not to use Council sites is the fairly small number of privately-owned caravan sites. In a few cases members of these communities have established such sites, perhaps initially for their own extended family group, or others from within the communities. Alternatively, owners of conventional holiday or touring caravan sites may be willing to accommodate Gypsies/Travellers at certain times of the year.

While the twice-yearly counts seek information about both these kinds of site it is inevitably less comprehensive than that for Council sites. Council site managers are aware of the existence of such sites in their areas but any more detailed information depends on the level of relationship/co-operation they develop with private site-owners who have no obligation to provide information for the counts and indeed, particularly in the case of holiday/touring sites, may be reluctant for it to be known that they sometimes accept Gypsies/Travellers. Often information for the return has to depend on simple observation and estimation. Private sites are less formally laid out and managed than Council sites, without the same distinction between pitches, making it difficult to estimate numbers of households staying on them. For the count it is necessary to use a rule of thumb measure of one 'caravan' equating with one 'household' and, for total numbers of people involved, to use the mean household size generated from the Council site data. In practice, any variations from this probably balance out over the small number of sites involved. Other information, such as length of stay, is not sought, since it is unlikely to be possible to obtain.

Availability

Eleven Councils recorded the presence of private sites accepting Gypsies/Travellers in July 2004 (Table 5). Eight of these noted the presence of sites available all year round and four referred to having summer-only sites. Only one referred to a winter-only site. Twenty Councils said they had no such sites.

Of the total of 17 sites identified, five fewer than in the summer of 2003, only seven were provided for/by Gypsies/Travellers (2003=10) and 11 were classed as holiday/touring sites (2003=12). These numbers appear to fluctuate from year to year and from season to season, though it is known that some sites of each category have closed over recent years. Sites specifically provided for/by Gypsies/Travellers are more likely to continue to be available over time, but availability of holiday/touring sites is much more unpredictable since readiness to accept Gypsies/Travellers is much more subject to owner attitudes or feelings at the time.

Table 5 - Availability and use of privately-owned sites in July 2004

(base = 11 Councils)

Only three Councils referred to having more than one privately-owned site within their areas. These are Highland (four summer sites) South Lanarkshire (two all-year and one summer-only) and East Ayrshire (one summer-only and one winter-only). Fife, which referred to three all-year sites in January 2004 only referred to one in July.

Four of the private sites were unoccupied at the time of the count, all but one being holiday/touring sites.

Occupation levels on private sites are mostly based on a count of the number of caravans, one caravan being regarded as equating with one household for the purpose of grossing-up numbers.

• A total of 146 households were recorded on the occupied sites;
• 122 of the households were classed as long-stay (four weeks or more);
• 24 households were classed as short-stay (up to four weeks);
• The total number of households (146) was substantially higher than in July 2003 (111) though it was noted in the 2003 summary that the figures for Highland on that occasion may have been an under-estimate;
• In general most of the long-stay households in the counts are on the Gypsy/Traveller sites and this was the case in July 2004 with 98 of the 122 households in this category though two holiday sites also recorded them (Scottish Borders with 18 and South Lanarkshire with 6).
• Ten sites were said to have been in continuous use over the preceding six months and five in occasional use, while the remaining two had not been used at all.
• All but one of the sites specifically for Gypsies/Travellers had been in continuous use over the preceding six months but the
  other had not been used at all. Of the holiday/touring sites four had been used continuously five occasionally but the other not at all, this being the winter-only site in East Ayrshire.

These patterns of use of the private sites remain broadly consistent with those in recent summers.

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