A new 870-mile walk around the whole of Wales is in jeopardy over a half-a-mile stretch next to mobile homes on a travellers site.Oh, boy!
The 80 gypsies on the camp are protesting that walkers strolling past their caravans will be 'an invasion of their privacy' when the route becomes part of the Wales Coast Path.
*rubs hands together*
*gets popcorn*
Naturally, the council immediately assumed the position with regards to the travellers, to no avail:
Council chiefs tried to solve the problem by paying for a 16ft high screen around the camp.Yes, the prospect of a coastal path that goes inland foxed me too…
But travellers living at the Rover Way site say it would be like a prison - and called for the coastal path to be moved inland away from their mobile homes.
Ramblers are OUTRAGED! at this, as you might expect.
And they must expect to win, too, as they have so many, many times before, even over such figures as the feared Van Hoogstraten.
Gwyn Lewis, 59, spokesman for Cardiff Ramblers, said: 'I have a pavement outside my house - how is this any different?Yeeees, the clue is in the phrase ‘normal house’, I suspect.
'You can't control who walks the road outside your house and you wouldn't expect to. It is all part of living in a normal house.'
Travellers on the site - opened 30 years ago - say they would be prepared to take the law into their own hands to block the path.Really? Well, blow me down, I never expected that!
Richard Probert, 27, who lives in the site with his young family, said: 'We tried to reason with them and talk sensibly, but we might as well be talking to children.Neither of whom are ever, ever to be found in travelling communities, of course. Perish the thought…
'I'm not being funny, but you don't know what type of person could use it - there could be drug dealers or paedophiles.'
15 comments:
"A 16ft high screen around the camp."
"It would be like a prison"
That's funny - their fellow "travellers" at Dales Farm seemed quite happy with a bleeding great fence surrounding their illegal encampment...
At a council meeting somewhere far far away in a law-abiding place...
"Ok let's settle this once and for all...hands up who pays full council tax ? You win."
you don't know what type of person could use it - there could be drug dealers or paedophiles??
I don't really understand the point. That drug dealers may be walking about in public, or that drug dealers may seek to visit the mobile homes?
I can't see a judge putting up with that crap.
m'lud..there may be dealers.
Is there any evidence of repeated narcotic violations within the rambling associations membership?
m'lud..we don't know.
Then I suggest if you want to proceed with this line of defence, Mr Wiggy, you had better find out..
I believe at this very moment Grauniad scribes are drawing straws to see who gets to deliver the verdict on this one.
*After you, Polly.* *No, no, after YOU, Seumas.*
Take two groups known for their extreme unwillingness to compromise, add plenty of media attention and a sprinking of celebrity and you've got the makings of next season's TV blockbuster:
'My Big Fat Muddy Punch-Up With Janet Street Porter'
Bring it on!
Somebody might walk past and "accidently" kick a football in their garden and ask the old biddy to go and get it,and then find their purse has been stolen.Somebody might walk past and ask to check their water pressure/show fake police ID/ask to check if their money is counterfeit-OK you know where i'm, going with this....
I have dealt with a lot of travellers over the years and they can absolutely justify any wrong-doing they do.They can talk the hind legs off donkeys.Very stubborn people.
Jaded
Clever of the travellers to use the Paedo-hysteria. Nice move....especially against the Fresh Air Freedom to Foam Fascists- who, no doubt to a gender undefined person, would oppose any traveller site in their own back yards.
That said even I, who was against the Dale Farm Ethnic Cleansing, can't quite see the traveller's point on this one.
Much as I love a walk along the Welsh coastal Path, I won't be walking that bit, not for fear of "Travellers"but because it has got to be the scuzziest bit of the whole Welsh coastline. The Steel works used to be down there, it's nothing but industrial wasteland and as picturesque as a slag heap.
What travelling have these folk done in the last 30 years then, apart from on the bus to Queen Street? I can't see one caravan in the pic, they're all bungalows.
'My Big Fat Muddy Punch-Up With Janet Street Porter'
Nice one!
Travellers on the site - opened 30 years ago - say they would be prepared to take the law into their own hands to block the path.
So 'travellers' who have been there for 30 years are travellers how exactly? Where and when do they travel?
Of course the way out of this is to push the disabled/gay/Muslim/ethnic card (not necessarily the same person but it would help).
You see, by law the council has to promote access to paths like this for these groups. Pikeys, I would have thought, are somewhere down the victimhood food chain. Then again, pikeys can get violent and most councils are run by pussies so the raspberry ripple/homo/Mohamedan/AliG card will get trumped by pipe-hittin' pikeys gettin' all medieval on a hiker's ass.
"That's funny - their fellow "travellers" at Dales Farm seemed quite happy with a bleeding great fence surrounding their illegal encampment..."
:D
"I can't see a judge putting up with that crap."
Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't bet on anything like that any more.
"Bring it on!"
A new ratings winner!
"...it has got to be the scuzziest bit of the whole Welsh coastline."
It didn't look all that scenic to me either, but if you're planning a total coastal walk, I can see why they wouldn't want to exclude it.
"You see, by law the council has to promote access to paths like this for these groups. "
Any sympathy I might feel on seeing the council hoist on their own petard evaporates when I remember whose money will be used to get them out of this hole.
popcorn choc ices and a cushion for this one..
Not far from where I live in sunny Bracknell there is a car park. It is used by model helicopter buffs to fly their machines. Families also use it on a Sunday taking their kids to play football on a Sunday. Usually it is locked with a big chain and padlock. I walked past there to day and saw that it is now full of pikey caravans and the human detritus that lives in them.
Wonderful! Now we can expect the crime rate to rise and the playing fields to become a no go area for the locals who previously enjoyed using them.
"Usually it is locked with a big chain and padlock. I walked past there to day and saw that it is now full of pikey caravans..."
And despite the fact they'd have to have 'broken and entered' they'll claim it was like that when they got there and the police will have no choice but to believe them.
And this will not even figure in the proposed Bill to criminalise squatting, because it's 'public land'...
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