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A selection of images representing communities.
Direct contact 0303 444 0000Gypsies and travellers have lived and travelled in this country for at least 500 years. Most now live in bricks and mortar housing and the majority of those living in caravans are on authorised public or private sites. However, around 20 per cent of traveller caravans are on unauthorised sites.
While the trend in unauthorised encampments and trespass by travellers is going down, the trend in unauthorised developments has been going up as a small minority of travellers bypass the planning system and develop sites without planning permission. This has worsened community cohesion and created resentment against the overwhelming majority of law-abiding travellers.
Top-down traveller site provision targets have failed to deliver - a recent Equality and Human Rights Commission report estimated that at current rates of permanent pitch provision it would take 18 years to hit targets set for 2011.
Gypsies and travellers face the most serious disadvantages of all ethnic minority groups with a much shorter life expectancy, low income and poor access to finance. Their children have high mortality rates and the lowest educational attainment.
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