Assembly wants views on Gypsy and Traveller needs

Public consultation opens this week on plans for new places to live for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople in South East England.

Consultation by the South East England Regional Assembly runs from 1 September until 21 November 2008. The Assembly wants views on 10-year targets for new spaces, and how they should be spread across the region.
 
Chairman of the Assembly's Regional Planning Committee Cllr Moira Gibson said:

"After years of uncertainty over making space for the Gypsy and Travelling communities, councils now have a duty to provide new spaces in a bid to cut homelessness and reduce unauthorised encampments.

"We want to hear everyone's opinion on the new plans. Our proposals draw on advice from the region's councils and we will be working with them to gather views before the Assembly makes recommendations to Government next spring on the region's needs.”

Key consultation questions include:

• Is 1,064 spaces for Gypsies and Travellers a suitable 10 year target?
• Is 276 spaces for Travelling Showpeople a suitable 10 year target?
• Which of four options gives the most suitable spread of spaces across the region? (See tables below).

Full consultation information is available in our consultations section

The Assembly's work will agree how many spaces are needed in each council area; individual councils will decide the exact location of new spaces.

Contacts

Alistair Moses, PR Executive at the Regional Assembly
Tel: 01483 555221

Heather Bolton, Communications Director at the Regional Assembly
Tel: 01483 555220

Notes to Editors

The county-by-county options for consultation are as follows:

 * Excludes 42 Travelling Showpeople families not currently counted by any county

1. The four consultation options are:
   
   Option A
   New spaces should ALL be provided as close as possible to where Gypsies and Travellers currently live. This may mean some council areas have no spaces.
   
   Option B
   New spaces should ALL be in the same general areas where Gypsies and Travellers currently live. Neighbouring councils would share the duty for providing new spaces but some council areas would have none.
   
   Option C
   HALF the new spaces should be in the same general areas where Gypsies and Travellers currently live. The other half would be spread across the region to make sure that all areas provide some spaces.
   
   Option D
   MOST new spaces should be in the same general areas where Gypsies and Travellers currently live. A quarter would be spread across the region to make sure that all areas provide some spaces.
2. Work to identify accommodation needs for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople is part of the Assembly's South East Plan - our 20 year planning vision.
3. After consultation ends in November 2008, the results will be considered by the Regional Assembly who will agree recommendations to Government. We aim to submit our recommendations in April 2009 - Government will then run a further consultation and appoint independent inspectors to review the plans before they become a legal requirement.

The South East England Regional Assembly

The Assembly is a partnership of councils and communities in the South East region. It was established in January 1999 to give a representative voice to the region, which covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

The Assembly is made up of 112 members including elected councillors nominated by the region's local authorities and 37 representatives from other sectors of the community (including business, trades unions, education, housing, health, sports, culture, tourism, faith groups, environmental, community and voluntary organisations) as well as the New Forest National Park Authority.

The Assembly has six roles:

• Regional Planning - preparing and delivering the South East Plan
• Regional Housing - the Regional Housing Board decides housing investment priorities
• Regional Transport - the Regional Transport Board decides transport investment priorities
• Advocacy - pressing the South East's interests in London and Brussels
• Alignment - co-ordinating regional policies and decisions.
• Accountability - scrutinising SEEDA's plans and impact

Our vision is for a distinctive, outward-looking, accessible region of prosperous, sustainable communities, with a high quality of life and environment.

South East Photo Library

The South East England Regional Assembly's photo library MediaStore, gives everyone the chance to access images of issues affecting the region. MediaStore draws on the knowledge of the Assembly to provide you with images from all over the South East.

• regularly updated with photos covering topics from housing to transport to flooding
• easy to access and download
• fully searchable
• a wide variety of high resolution images
• there's no charge for this service, just credit the Assembly when an image is used.

To view images from across the region visit www.southeast-ra-mediastore.co.uk

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