| Description | Charles Parker interviews Bryan Long, welfare officer at Hampshire County Council, about the integration of the travelling community into settled society.
Track 1: Bryan Long talks about the specific prejudices that people have against the traveller community, concerning hygiene and cleanliness, and explains that the travellers often do not have the opportunity to keep clean because of the conditions they are living in and the lack of sanitation, and the council's efforts to provide education in hygiene. He makes a distinction between 'non nomadic' people, who want to be re-housed and 'nomadic' people who should be provided with resting places and licensed sites 3.44 mins
Track 2: he discusses the social problems in providing camp and caravan sites, and the reluctance of holidaymakers to share sites with travellers. He talks about the importance of settling travellers for long enough to provide traveller children with an education and the efforts that have been made to address their particular difficulties and re-house them in council accommodation. He explains that the council will provide a warden to advise travellers about 'how to live on a housing estate' 3.56 mins
Track 3: he talks about the publicity this scheme has had in the national press, and the interest that social workers from other parts of the country have shown in the initiative. He explains that he hopes to launch the scheme the following year with a dozen families being re-housed under the care of a warden and social worker, on a site near other urban housing in order for the traveller families to integrate into the settled community. He talks about the number of traveller families in the compounds in Hampshire at present and his plans to introduce a system for them to be trained to live in 'ordinary housing' 3.41 mins
Track 4: he talks about the families who have been rehoused at Ringwood, the experience that social workers in Hampshire have had in working with traveller families and the process of gaining the confidence of the travelling community. He states that the people he and his colleagues are working with are not 'true Gypsies', but have been living in the same place for years and want to get into ordinary housing for the sake of their children 2.49 mins
Track 5: he thinks that travellers have become more flexible about their way of life, and are more prepared to consider other options for living, and compares the lack of a tribal tradition he sees in Hampshire with the situation with travellers in Europe. He thinks that the people he works with are keen to be housed in council accommodation, but admits that some people have left settled housing to travel again 3.01 mins
Total: 17.13 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA DH44B0886774 |