I was with a chap that specialise in moving on travellers...
Discussion
....yesterday.
He told me some stories that made me cringe. Apparently many travellers rig themselves up to the national grid by locating power cables and syphoning off the power! However, they can't link themselves up to the sewerage system - so guess what many of them do? They'll find a manhole (could be gas, telephone, water, etc) and then they chuck all their "human waste" down said hole! How sick is that?
Also, the chap gets stones chucked at him by the travellers' kids, and he's often videoed by the travellers - they hope he'll exact revenge on one of the kids (he never has, obviously!) Some travellers crap into bags and chuck this at him - they'll also vomit into bags and do the same! This, obviously, is in addition to the verbal abuse he gets. He tells me that many are VERY aware of their human rights and he knows that if he puts one foot out of place they'll have the full force of the law on his back.
He said that when they do move them on, they need:
Electricians - because of their meddling with the grid.
H&S officers to clean up man holes and the general mess left behind.
Dozens of police.
Petrol suppliers - they know they'll get free fuel.
Engineers - very often the caravans are bolted together and someone needs to detach them.
And many others - all paid for by our Tax and/or utility bills.
>> Edited by srebbe64 on Thursday 12th January 21:43
He told me some stories that made me cringe. Apparently many travellers rig themselves up to the national grid by locating power cables and syphoning off the power! However, they can't link themselves up to the sewerage system - so guess what many of them do? They'll find a manhole (could be gas, telephone, water, etc) and then they chuck all their "human waste" down said hole! How sick is that?
Also, the chap gets stones chucked at him by the travellers' kids, and he's often videoed by the travellers - they hope he'll exact revenge on one of the kids (he never has, obviously!) Some travellers crap into bags and chuck this at him - they'll also vomit into bags and do the same! This, obviously, is in addition to the verbal abuse he gets. He tells me that many are VERY aware of their human rights and he knows that if he puts one foot out of place they'll have the full force of the law on his back.
He said that when they do move them on, they need:
Electricians - because of their meddling with the grid.
H&S officers to clean up man holes and the general mess left behind.
Dozens of police.
Petrol suppliers - they know they'll get free fuel.
Engineers - very often the caravans are bolted together and someone needs to detach them.
And many others - all paid for by our Tax and/or utility bills.
>> Edited by srebbe64 on Thursday 12th January 21:43
What do you expect with the way the government handles these scum.Another case of the shit end of society having more rights and ability to escape the law than any decent tax payer. If it were up to me, they would be moved on by the army with bulldozers straight over the edge of a cliff,as I'm probably not allowed to say they should be locked in a gas chamber 
bmgm3 said:
What do you expect with the way the government handles these scum.Another case of the shit end of society having more rights and ability to escape the law than any decent tax payer. If it were up to me, they would be moved on by the army with bulldozers straight over the edge of a cliff,as I'm probably not allowed to say they should be locked in a gas chamber
,well said ,all they do is ponce of us and take the pi55 out of the society they live in,if the general public stopped giving them jobs to do then they would have no cash to survive. Please dont get these scum mixed up with the showmen from travelling fairs and cicus's.
bmgm3 said:
What do you expect with the way the government handles these scum.Another case of the shit end of society having more rights and ability to escape the law than any decent tax payer. If it were up to me, they would be moved on by the army with bulldozers straight over the edge of a cliff,as I'm probably not allowed to say they should be locked in a gas chamber
Unfortunately no government has ever got to grips with this parasites.
They contribute nothing and take all they can. They are actually predators.
timmy30 said:
Ironically under current law the travellers are able to do what none of us permies can... i.e. they can buy a plot of land, setup home on it and claim occupation rights...thus circumventing the planning laws.
Marvellous.
Its not quite like that though. There is no reason why they cant buy land - the purchase of land does not require you to have a permanent address to start with! So what happens is they buy the land, move on and they retrospectively try to get planning permission to use it as a travellers site....
Fortunately the rules on this were tightened up significantly and all of the information passed out to district and local councils. This has been the situation for several years. So the chances of a group of travellers buying land and moving on are pretty remote. They cant get "change of use" and hence are in exactly the same boat as squatting. Hence the full force of the slug-slow law is against them. Ok, it takes ages to get them off - but there is no loop-hole here....
Which is a good thing.
off_again said:
Its not quite like that though. There is no reason why they cant buy land - the purchase of land does not require you to have a permanent address to start with! So what happens is they buy the land, move on and they retrospectively try to get planning permission to use it as a travellers site....
What happened near where I live is they bought a patch of land at auction, moved about 40 caravans onto it, got electricity plugged in and settled down.
This was 2 years ago, okay proceedings are going on to evict them, this will take years and in the meantime it is increasingly likely that some well meaning European Directive that trumps UK law will be bought in the give settlement rights to 'persecuted ethnic groups' such as travellers and gypsies.
They're great people. Why, only last month a van stopped outside where I work & 2 gentlemen & their son offered me all sorts of new items for sale cheap. I don't know how they manage to keep their prices so low, but they must really be helping industry by keeping tooling & other costs down like they do.
g say 
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