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THE OVERALL PICTURE

The twice-yearly counts illustrate patterns of Gypsy/Traveller presence across Scotland in winter and summer and, within the total, the proportions using each of the three categories of stopping place: Council sites, private sites and unauthorised encampments. The counts confirm the differences between the two seasons with lower total numbers and decreased mobility in winter. In contrast the higher summer figures are likely to include visiting households from other parts of the British Isles as well as some who are normally settled in houses but choose to travel for part of the year.

Figure 3 summarises winter patterns from January 1999 to January 2007, together with the mean for the period. Over the nine years the counts confirm the differences between summer and winter seasons with lower total numbers and less mobility in winter. Higher summer figures are also contributed to by the presence of Gypsies/Travellers from other parts of Britain and also of those who may choose to live in houses for part of the year.

Figure 3 - Gypsy/Traveller households in the three location categories: January counts 1999-2007 and nine-year winter mean

In January 2007 the total population of Gypsies/Travellers in Scotland is estimated at 551 households, amounting to 1653 people. The household total is slightly higher than the previous winter there are differences in the share on each of the three types of stopping place.

Within the overall total, the actual numbers occupying pitches on Council sites were at the high end of the nine-year range (278; 290; 295; 305; 280; 245; 272; 299; 295), accounting for just over half the total households (54%).

The number of households using private sites in January 2007 was the highest over the nine years period (108; 59; 139; 97; 86; 116; 90; 107; 159), at 29%, above the mean of 23%.

Households recorded on unauthorised locations were also the second highest recorded over the same period (52; 31; 56; 35; 44; 61; 66; 119; 97), a drop from the previous winter, though still a much lower share of the total than in the summer which reached a peak in July 2006.

Table 7 provides an overall summary of the counts for each Council for January 2007, with comparative figures for the two preceding winter counts ⁵, giving the numbers of households for each of the three elements of the count: Council sites, private sites and unauthorised encampments. It also provides an estimate of the total number of people that these represent.

Since 1996, the loss of five Council sites, four of them large and two within one Council (North Lanarkshire), has reduced the total pitches available for letting compared to the original levels of provision envisaged. Three mainland Councils still provide no site, even though there is a Gypsy/Traveller presence within their areas. The availability of pitches in the winter is also lower with the absence of the three seasonal sites. However, although the population on Council sites is higher than in the previous two winters, its share of the total population this winter is lower than in recent years. Even among the active sites a number of pitches continue to be untenanted either because they have been vandalized - though in a few cases, more positively, because they are being upgraded - or because possible tenants choose not to move on to them but prefer to take their chance by unauthorised camping even in the winter months.

On the positive side, many sites continue to show high tenancy levels and longevity and their apparent security and stability makes them attractive to prospective tenants, though at the same time it makes the likelihood of a vacancy occurring less. More troublingly, levels of unrest and feuding within sections of these communities continue to be noted in a number of Council returns, emphasising that sites can be volatile communities and personal comment from managers over the years indicates that it can take little to empty sites, not just individually but possibly with knock-on effects to adjacent sites, if there is a sudden incident.

With the completion of the January 2007 count, data is now available for a run of nine successive years, enabling assessment of consistency or change over time. Within the total of Gypsy/Traveller households 'on the road' in Scotland in winter ( i.e. excluding housed families) these proportions inevitably vary from year to year, just as they do between summer and winter. However, the increasing longevity of stay on many sites, coupled with greater ease of travel out from a base location when seeking work, may nowadays tend to reduce overall mobility and change what were traditional patterns of movement.

Acknowledgements

The part played by Council staff throughout Scotland in these counts is acknowledged. Councils with their own official sites, have site managers who provide the principal underpinning to the returns, through their site management records, the information which they hold on any local private sites and through their knowledge of their own local 'patch' plus their networks of local contacts which enable information to be gathered on unauthorised encampments, generally scattered and often used only sporadically, in remote and not easily identifiable locations. For the few Councils without official sites, staff in a variety of departments provide information which helps to build up a picture of occasional private sites and of occasional unauthorised encampment. The Traveller Site Managers Association, the main co-ordinating and training body for Scottish site managers is also a valuable source of information, particularly of changes in site staff and contact points. Without the assistance of all these people, this picture of Gypsy/Traveller presence in Scotland could not be generated.

Table 7 - Households and population by type of stopping place for winter counts : January 2005 to January 2007, with three-year mean

This Table provides a breakdown by Council. For each count these are shown in terms of households on each Council's official site(s) ( Column A); households* (both short stay and long stay) on privately owned sites ( Column B); households* on unauthorised encampments ( Column C); together with a total for the three categories ( Column D).

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