12.6 In order to shed some light on the travelling patterns and experiences of Gypsies and Travellers throughout the Study Area, respondents were asked about a range of issues associated with travelling.
12.7 One of the most important issues to gain information about was the frequency that households travelled. The vast majority of people reported that they never travelled or travelled seasonally, which
generally means for short periods during the summer months. Table 29 breaks this down by accommodation type. There are no real
differences between the accommodation types. Predictably,
households on unauthorised encampments are the most mobile group with a significant number of those interviewed travelling every week, month or couple of months.
Table 29: Frequency of travelling by current accommodation type Current accommodation type Frequency of travelling Private sites
(%)
Bricks and mortar (%)
Every week 0 0
Every month 0 0
Every couple of months 4 0
Seasonally 46 53
Once per year 15 13
Never 35 33
12.8 We asked those who said they never travelled to tell us why this was the case. Again, we received diverse replies; however, these seemed to hint at the notion of ‘being settled’ as well as because of children:
“I’m settled here with the kids in school. It’s somewhere for the kids to come back to”
“We’re settled here, our children grew up here and we can get work here. We just like it.”
“We haven't travelled for years now. We’re settled on here, all my children are married and I have grandchildren who come and see us from time to time.”
12.9 Other respondents talked about how travelling depended upon having a male influence and without that influence travelling had ceased:
“The children are in school, I’ve no need to travel, cause I’m no longer with my husband”
“I’m divorced now so I don't travel”
“I haven't moved for years since my husband passed away”
12.10 For those who did travel, albeit seasonally, we asked them where they liked to go. This was an open question designed to allow respondents to mention three of the places they visit most frequently. One of the most common responses was ‘anywhere’ or ‘all over’: It was impossible to identify particularly popular destinations from this. A number of respondents mentioned Appleby Fair with a similar number mentioning other Fairs such as Cambridgeshire and Stow. There were diverse replies which included: Doncaster, Newark, Romford, Nottingham, Grantham, Cambridge, London, Manchester, and Lowestoft. However, in terms of the areas people noted, this could be broadly encapsulated by an East coast travelling pattern, along a broadly similar route to the A1.
12.11 For those people who still travelled there was a wide variation in how many caravans/trailers they travelled with, from 1 to 6. The average number of caravans people travelled with was 1.8 caravans. It was noted, however, that people can sometimes travel in larger groups both in terms of number of people and the number of trailers.
12.12 In total, approximately a quarter of the sample had travelled to some extent over the past 12 months. Households had travelled for a number of reasons including (in order of popularity): to attend a Fair, for work, and to visit relatives.
12.13 With regard to what type of accommodation people had used while travelling during the last 12 months, by far the most common was staying with family on private or socially rented sites (residential and transit) with smaller numbers using the ‘roadside’ (unauthorised encampments), transit sites and mainstream caravan parks.
12.14 Out of the people who had travelled in the last 12 month period, 5 respondents (10%) had been forced to leave where they were staying; largely as a result of evictions, but also as a result of harassment and the closure of a site. One respondent also commented that the reason why they had been forced to leave a particular site was “because they did not have our kind of people on the site”, although it was unclear whether they were referring to being a Gypsy/Traveller in general or from a particular Gypsy/Traveller group/family.
12.15 In order to further understand people’s future travelling patterns, we asked everyone how often they thought they might travel over the next 12 month period (summer 2007 – summer 2008). Half (50%) thought that they would travel about the same as the previous year; 15% thought less; while 4% thought they would travel more (a potential net reduction of around 11%).
12.16 We also asked everyone where they might travel over this period. Around a fifth of people anticipated travelling around areas local to where they were based now (19%) or North and North East
Lincolnshire (25%) with the majority intending to travel to other parts of Lincolnshire (21%) or the rest of the UK (48%). Some respondents (15%) were also intending travelling abroad.
12.17 In terms of preference for accommodation when travelling people were asked about the sort of sites/land they would like to use in future (Table 30).
Table 30: Popularity of preferred accommodation
Type preferred accommodation % of respondents
With family on private sites 64
Public/private transit sites 42
Caravan park 37
With family on socially rented sites 25
Roadside 10
Farmer’s fields 6
Other 4
Hotels 2
12.18 As Table 30 shows, when travelling, people would rather stay with family on private sites or on public or private transit sites. This is followed by more mainstream caravan parks – interestingly the desire to stay on mainstream caravan sites is larger than those who currently do so. Roadside accommodation is one of the least favoured options for the respondents.