TCI Commentary:
A council decision to launch a consultation on designated stopping places for Travellers in Grimsby has been challenged by opposition councillors, protesting that all five of the proposed sites being considered in the consultation are inappropriate due to ‘clear public opposition’ to all of them. The Council administration is being accused of engineering a ‘fait accompli’ consultation and ignoring the views of and impact upon both local and Traveller communities. Opposition Councillors are recommending that the proposed consultation is cancelled and a ‘genuine engagement with stakeholders’ is started. Quite how this would differ from the original consultation is not directly specified.
The local level is not the only place where this emotive issue has arisen. The government is currently consulting on strengthening police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments, in a move being criticised by some as heavy-handed and potentially discriminatory. The writer and journalist George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian has criticised it as an attempt to ‘criminalise the lives of some of Britain’s most vulnerable and persecuted groups’. Apart from arguably the subject matter, the government consultation is mostly unobjectionable, although the Equalities Impact Assessment included in the consultation document does seem a little brief for something that is likely to have such a large impact upon a specific minority group.
The issue of how to tackle unauthorised encampments continues to be an emotive one and an area where local politics and equalities concerns can complicate things significantly. For consultors, we advise intensive stakeholder engagement and a keen awareness of your equality duties and striking a careful balance between the needs of competing stakeholder groups.
EDIT: We have contacted the Council in question and the call-in was resolved in favour of the consultation going ahead after what was described to us as ‘lively debate’. We will monitor the situation going forward.
Article:
Labour Councillors at North East Lincolnshire Council have called in what they call a “farcical” consultation on a controversial designated stopping place for travellers in Grimsby.
The authority’s leadership in November approved a recommendation to take a five-site shortlist forward for public consultation and begin technical assessments of the sites – despite a backlash from nearby residents and ward councillors.
The sites, which would reportedly provide a 14-day maximum stay, were all in the South and East Marsh wards.
Supporters said they would provide secure areas for the travelling communities and reduce the risk of anti-social behaviour by providing more powers to deal with illegal encampments.
Opposition campaigners, however, say all the proposed sites – whittled down from 1,300 potential stopping places over the past five years – are “unsuitable” and have warned of criminal recriminations and the closure of local businesses and community centres.
The call-in request, originally submitted shortly after the decision in November, has been made by Labour leader Matthew Patrick, and Southward member Janet Goodwin.
They said: “Despite clear public opposition to all five potential sites, the administration has ignored the views of residents to engineer a ‘fait accompli’ consultation that has no concern for the direct adverse impact it will have on both the local and traveller communities.”
They call on the cabinet to “abandon the current farcical so-called consultation” and listen to the public.
They said the exercise was “pointless” and “aimed to stitch-up the final decision”.
They also want the authority “to review sites that have not been ruled out by the previous administration, this would exclude from the process such sites as the Nunsthorpe sites, Cromwell Road sites and all existing car park provision in the borough.”
The councillors argued “genuine engagement” with stakeholders would get the best outcome and be cost-saving “in terms of reputational damage and social challenges that will come from a poorly located site”.
The five sites proposed are:
Former youth club on Wootton Road, Nunsthorpe
Torksey Drive and Toynton Road site, off Winchester Avenue
Land under the Cleethorpe Road flyover
Garibaldi Street car park
The car park off Wellington Street
Article originally appeared on Lincolnshire Reporter
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