Travellers To Be Called….What?

Travellers have urged Croydon Council to find them a permanent site because they want to settle down.

Ummmm. Yeah. Me too.

*scratches head*

Last week it was revealed the authority had dealt with 83 illegal encampments this year, and that it had cost taxpayers more than £3,000 a week to clean up after travellers.

But Michael Connors, one of the caravan-dwellers near Croydon's Ikea this week, has hit back at the criticism.

Oh, well, there’s always one.

The 30-year-old dad-of-four said he was fed-up travelling around and wanted to receive some long-term help.

But they don’t want to be called ‘beggars’, remember?

Mr Connors said: "If we get a site we'd pay gas and electricity and rates, we don't want it for free. "Croydon is a very big area and Croydon has got lots of wasteland. I need somewhere permanent to get my children permanent education.

"They (Croydon Council) are supposed to have so many sites – we would like to be off the road.

"There's a lot of travellers who have gone off the roads and into houses."

Want, want want.

Council leader Mike Fisher tore into a group of travellers last month and slammed the rubbish and human excrement being left behind as "a risk to human health".

But Mr Connor says it is important not to class all travellers as "bad'uns".

And yet, that’s all we ever seem to hear. When do we ever see a story of travellers giving back to the community? Sorting out the mess they cause?

Never. That’s when.

He explained: "If there's any crime in the area then people think we've done it. "Once we move off the site the fly-tippers come along. We actually get the blame for it.

"To be honest it makes us feel tormented."

Awwwww! Fetch the Tiny Violin!