Photographs by kind permission of Joe Windas, Mary Bird and Lee Hughes
The past year has been a very
difficult one for all organisations working with Gypsies, Travellers and Roma.
The government has been reluctant to consult with Gypsies, Travellers and Roma,
or with their organisations even as we have seen a flood of legislation which
directly or indirectly brings them huge disadvantages. The cover pictures are a reminder of the
Control of Horses Act, 2015, which is already having devastating effects on
horse-drawn Travellers in some parts of the country. As a Dorset Traveller
pointed out, “When they seize a man’s horse, they have no idea of the value of
that animal to the owner. His livelihood
and all he possesses depends on that horse.”
This did not initially receive much publicity, until the “Countryfile”
item which revealed that 80% of horses seized had been destroyed. Travellers have kindly provided
the photographs on the front cover to represent their horses, and these images
speak volumes about the deep bond that exists between them and their beautiful
and beloved horses.
The bringing into force of the
dreaded new Planning Policy Guidance for Traveller sites on 31st
August was remarked upon immediately by alert lawyers, and was dismayingly
unaltered from the original disastrous proposals. This flew in the face of many well-argued
consultation responses which pointed out the possible consequences of making it
virtually impossible for Gypsies and Travellers to provide their own sites, as
they had been urged to do at the time of the Criminal Justice and Public Order
Act 1994. The sinister removal of Traveller status from people who had settled
permanently for whatever reason has caused enormous dismay to all Gypsies and
Travellers, who feel that their very existence as culturally distinct ethnic
groups is threatened.
The Housing and Planning Bill
introduced in Parliament in the autumn of 2015 included a clause which removed
from local authorities the duty to assess the accommodation needs of Gypsies
and Travellers. Again, this was noted quite quickly, but despite
representations which pointed out the impact on these hugely disadvantaged and
marginalised groups of people, the government has declined to remove this
clause.
The Horse Passport Regulations
2009 already required horses to be microchipped when owners applied for a
passport but the difficulty of complying when owners had no fixed abode appears
not to have resulted in any guidance on how to proceed in such cases. It was therefore not surprising that the
Microchipping for Dogs (England)
Regulations 2015 similarly overlooked this difficulty. Only in Wales, it
seems, was this noted as an area that required further guidance, but guidance
has not been forthcoming. For nomadic Travellers, their dogs are an important
means of supplementing income by trading or breeding, so this apparently
well-intentioned measure is also a further deprivation with, as yet, no remedy.
We note that organisations
representing Gypsies and Travellers have now said “Dosta!” (Enough!) and have
banded together under the leadership of the Traveller Movement to plan a march
of protest in May. This will focus particularly on the Planning Policy Guidance
as the most detrimental of all the measures introduced in the past year. This
was also the strong feeling of the meeting we held in Marsden, Kent
in September 2015, where Romani Gypsies were strongly represented.
For Eastern
European Roma un the United
Kingdom there is also considerable anxiety as we approach the
referendum about membership of the European Union. If we leave the EU, a
host of questions will need to be addressed for which at the present there are
no answers. Although under the radar, the Eastern European Roma
community in the UK
is huge and still growing.
The
Churches Network seeks to ground all we do in the Gospel of liberation we share
and seek to proclaim. Our vision
is of one people of God united through the cross in which we already have the
victory. We believe we have a crucial
role to be bearers of hope to a people who have all but lost hope. To
achieve this we need to find a way to draw in the leaders of the GTR churches
in the UK.
As followers of Jesus Christ we
accept his divine commission to the poor, the oppressed and the marginalised.
Our hope is that we can so present what we believe to be God’s call to us that
all the national churches will join us in speaking out to explain the harm that
is being done to people already suffering severe disadvantages.
Progress since last year
Last year’s Business Plan set the following
targets:
·
Recruit
more members from Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities
·
Identify
key social justice issues which Gypsies, Travellers and Roma need us to
address.
·
Plan
ways in which these can be tackled.
·
Begin
implementing plans
·
Continue
programme of awareness raising events.
·
Plan
ways of engaging each of the national churches represented, at both national
and local level
·
Hold a
meeting in Kent
·
Plan
further meetings in different areas and contact Christian faiths in that area
in order to invite their participation
·
Aim to
encourage one-off road shows, ideally provided through regional structures.
Progress has been made as
follows:
Ø
Membership
The email list now stands at 57
people, plus 2 contactable only by phone, which compares with 56 people last
year. Since the names of people whose
emails always bounced back undelivered have been deleted, this represents more of
a gain than first appears. We do not operate any ethnic monitoring, but it is
probably fair to say that only one of the new people on the list is a Romani,
and another is a Roma. The facebook
group membership is now 83, compared with 26 last year, and ethnic Travellers
are probably better represented here. In
fact, the group is very useful for networking, with members providing the
photographs on the cover, and volunteering to author articles for the CMEAC
book of minority ethnic saints.
Nevertheless, our meeting in Kent
demonstrated the willingness of Travellers to participate at a venue accessible
to them, and with hosts whom they knew.
This suggests that we should consider progressing regional structures
where possible.
Ø
Key social justice issues
The key social issue identified
in Kent
was the impact of the Policy Planning Guidance for Traveller sites which was
issued on 31st August. This
is also the issue which has brought Traveller organisations together to plan a
protest.
Since then a demonstration in London
has also protested against the clause in the Housing and Planning Bill which
removed the local authorities’ duty to assess the accommodation needs of
Gypsies and Travellers.
Traveller
organisations and our own members appear not to have picked up the issue of the
astonishing over-representation of Traveller children in custody, and the fact
that they are significantly more likely to have bad experiences in custody than
all other groups of children. (HM Inspector of Prisons, “Children in Custody,
2015) However, a CNGTR member brought this to the attention of the Bishop of Rochester,
who holds a brief for prisons in the House of Lords.
Ø
Planning ways in which key issues can be
tackled
Our main proposal at present is
to issue a statement explaining why the Planning Policy for Traveller Sites is
so disastrous for the communities we seek to serve. The hope is to bring in as
many Christian denominations as possible, and thereby rise awareness within the
churches as well as among the wider public.
Since any such statement will be
at best ephemeral, we need to consider further ways of spreading the argument
for a more helpful policy.
Implementation of this plan has
begun by contacting all the major denominations at national level.
Ø
Programme of awareness raising events
There were no awareness raising events organised by the Network in 2015-16,
although one member organised a major event in her home cathedral, and one
diocese again sent Holocaust Memorial Day liturgy suggestions to all incumbents,
including mention of the Roma and Sinti victims.
Ø
Planning
ways of engaging each of the
national churches, at both national and local level
We have been delighted to welcome into the network representation from
the Roman Catholic Church, the Baptist
Church, the Salvation
Army and the United Reformed Church. Some of these representatives are not often
available in person, but their support is nevertheless greatly valued.
Ø
Meeting
in Kent
We were very grateful to Olby and Gary Brazil and their families for
generously hosting our September meeting free of charge in the South East
Romany Museum.
The Romany people of Kent
were strongly represented at this meeting, which included worship and a
bring-and-share lunch as well as a discussion of business.
Ø
Planning further meetings in other areas,
inviting representatives of
Christian faiths in that area.
A meeting in Essex
has been proposed, and we will need to consider how to involve the local
churches.
Ø
Encouraging one-off road shows
On 16th June the
Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham held a day
conference and exhibition to raise awareness of Gypsy Traveller culture,
history and lifestyle in the State Chamber of the Archbishop’s Palace in
Southwell. Two members were programmed
to take part as key speakers.
Financing the network
The Network started the financial
year with £125 in the bank, and during the year received gits and membership
contributions totalling £175. Payments of £30 and £19.24 were made for a senior
railcard and an inkjet cartridge, both for the secretary, and the Network
therefore ends the year with £250.76 in the bank.
This upward trajectory in the
funding is due to the generosity of the Church of England, which makes our
usual venue available free of charge as well as contributing financially, to
Salisbury Diocese, which funds travel for three of our members and last but not
least to our members, who contribute financially as well as bearing the cost of
travel to meetings. We are enormously grateful to Olby and Gary Brazil for
making us so welcome free of charge at the South
East Romany
Museum and regard this as a useful
model for meetings outside of London.
It would be greatly appreciated
if the secretary were also permitted to make claims for telephone calls,
postage and stationery, and this should still leave us with a small but growing
amount of funding, some of which we could use for our proposed “roadshow”
events.
Conclusion
We give thanks to God for one
another, for the wonderful Gospel we share and for his consistent assurance of
his love for people of every tribe and language and people and nation. As we
commit ourselves to showing that love especially to people who suffer
discrimination, disadvantage and sometimes extreme prejudice, we give thanks
especially that Jesus constantly renews our hope, even in the darkest days. As
we seek to bring light where there is darkness, our business plan for 2016-17
needs to build on our successes of 2015-16, and address those parts of our aims
which have yet to be met.
