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PRIVATELY-OWNED SITES

Some Gypsies/Travellers stay on privately-owned sites. Council site managers are generally aware of the existence of such sites in their areas, though in practice they are not always easy to identify. The twice-yearly counts seek information about such sites but levels of information depend on the extent to which managers have been able to develop contacts with private siteowners who have no obligation to provide information and may be reluctant to provide it. The official for one Council completing his return and identifying the existence of a private site in his area noted that 'I do not visit this location as the Travellers do not wish their origin to be known'.

With no formal records available, information for the count generally depends on observation/estimation of caravan numbers. In order to generate population estimates for private sites the count adopts a rule of thumb measure of one 'caravan' equating with one 'household'. Mean household size generated from the Council sites can then be used in conjunction with caravan numbers to provide an estimate of population on private sites. Any variations from this measure probably balance out, given the small number of sites involved. The other kinds of information which Council sites provide, such as length of stay and turnover patterns, are not sought for private sites, as it is unlikely to be feasible to obtain.

In January 2007 more than a quarter of all Gypsy/Traveller households (29%) were recorded on this kind of location. These may be summarised as follows:

• A total of 159 households, higher than the previous year (107);
• An estimated population of 477 people (332)
• 141 of the households were classed as long-stay (99);
• 18 households were classed as short-stay of up to four weeks (2006 = 8);

The numbers of households using privately-owned sites has fluctuated widely over the nine winter counts since January 1999 (108; 59; 139; 97; 86; 116; 90; 107; 159), possibly reflecting the more uncertain availability of holiday/touring sites accepting them, or their reluctance for it to be known or even just the extent to which individual authorities were aware of their presence.

Privately-owned sites fall into two categories. One is the site established by a Gypsy/Traveller family wanting and able to have a more settled long-term base for themselves. Here an owner may have built a house on his own land and been able to get a site licence for additional caravans. Although these are likely to be used principally for his extended family. sometimes access is allowed to other known families. Sites of this kind are likely to be available throughout the year. Compared with the formality of layout and provision of individual amenity facilities on Council sites, private sites generally are more informal with less rigid demarcation of individual pitches and a more centralised provision of toilet and washing facilities. Management styles are likely to be rather different, and whether or not a household is able to access such a site depends to a much greater extent on the personal say-so of the owner. The great majority of long-stay households were on the Gypsy/ Traveller sites, mostly with fairly substantial numbers (15, 30). Only a few of these sites had any short-stay residents. All the Gypsy/Traveller sites were said to have been in continuous use over the preceding six months, probably in keeping with their more generally residential role.

The second type of privately-owned site is the conventional holiday or touring caravan site, on which owners will sometimes accommodate Gypsies/Travellers, but only at certain times of the year, perhaps at quieter times when the presence of Gypsies/Travellers will not be seen as affecting normal tourist trade. Here, restrictions on length of stay and on the presence of particular kinds of vehicle may be imposed and any form of apparent working from the site is more likely to be ruled out while, as with the other kind of site, access is more likely to depend on the applicant household's past links with the site or on the site owner's recent experience of other Gypsies/ Travellers. Of the holiday/touring sites three were classed as having been in continuous use and five in occasional use, the other apparently not having been used at all over that period.

Private site numbers appear not to have varied a great deal in recent years. Across all the counts from 1998 to 2007, both in summer and winter, the average has remained around 20 sites, though the number recorded dropped in the summer of 2006. However, variations over the whole period reflect some missing returns, variable local knowledge of sites' existence, particularly where Council personnel change over time, or just uncertain readiness of holiday site owners to accept Gypsies/Travellers.

Table 4 summarises the private sites recorded in January 2007. Previous counts attempted to distinguish between sites for allyear use or for summer only (with the occasional site being identified as winter only). Given uncertainty about their respective status, they are now grouped together. Twelve Councils identified a total of 18 sites. All eight Gypsy/Travellerowned sites were in use at the time of the count, generally with substantial numbers of households, most classed as long-stay residents (more than four weeks) but with two having a few shorter-stay households. Perhaps not surprisingly, given their holiday/touring nature and likely licence constraints five of the nine other sites were completely unoccupied. Of the four with some Gypsies/Travellers present, one had as many as 12 longstay households on the count date and two each had ten longstay while the other had only a small number of short-stay households. One return referred to two locations which it felt should be classed as private 'sites' since the occupants owned their land and were in process of trying to get planning permission/site licences for a family site and therefore did not really constitute unauthorised encampments.

Table 4 - Privately owned sites recorded in January 2007
(Base = 31 Councils)

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