Travellers apply for electricity link-up
12:51pm Thursday 27th December 2007
Comments (18)TRAVELLERS at an illegal camp in Semington have been connected to mains water and have applied to be connected to electricity despite being served a stop notice for any more work on the site.
The group legitimately bought the piece of land near West Wiltshire Crematorium and moved there earlier this month but started building work without planning permission so the notice was served.
Council officers are powerless to prevent them having water and electricity because of human rights legislation, health and safety rules and the fact that they do not require planning permission.
Parish council chairman Robert Oglesby said: "The whole village is up in arms about it. It's got all the hallmarks of what happened at Minety, in south Somerset, and across the country. It may well be an appropriate site for them but jumping the gun doesn't help their case."
West Wiltshire District Council has also received a request from the occupants through Wiltshire County Council's Social Services and the Wiltshire Primary Care Trust for them to be connected to an electricity supply.
This is because a child on the site has a serious medical condition and requires feeding by gastrostomy tube, which should be controlled by a pump with a reliable electricity supply.
A planning application has been submitted to West Wiltshire District Council for the site to become a private caravan site for three pitches and eight caravans, including a space for horses.
Semington Parish Council will have its first chance to debate the application at a meeting in the village hall on January 2 at 8pm.
Your Say YourThis Is Wiltshire
Yali, Ex-Melksham says...
1:32pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Sorry May, don`t know where you got that idea from.
Dodgy Dave, Packs Croft Meadows says...
2:18pm Thu 27 Dec 07
I am amazed the utilities have moved in so quickly - surely these people have to pass credit checks like everyone else or are they just "waived" by the peecee softies with the public picking up the bill should they default?
As for the child with the serious medical condition, I trust Social Services have checked the capabilities of the parents, who by moving onto a site with no electric in the first place could be said to be behaving very irresponsibly and not considering the wellbeing of a sick child, and even worse, endangering the life of said child.
Disgusted of, Westbury says...
3:52pm Thu 27 Dec 07
You don't half get some rubbish on here. What does DD suggest. That they apply for council housing? Bloody fool.
Dodgy Dave, Packs Croft Meadows says...
4:04pm Thu 27 Dec 07
mark_wilts, Melksham says...
4:23pm Thu 27 Dec 07
SwindonNF, Swindon says...
6:27pm Thu 27 Dec 07
What do i think should be done about the child with a medical problem? I think that his family should be offered a spot on a legal caravan site, that has electricity and running water.
Should they decline this offer, the child should be put in foster care until this matter is fully resolved. He should not be kept on this ILLEGAL site and used as a bargaining chip.
Disgusted of, Westbury says...
6:47pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Not having electricity is a valid reason for taking kids into care?? I've heard it all now!
Heaven forbid any Amish visiting the area!
SwindonNF, Swindon says...
6:56pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Disgusted of wrote:Child neglect is a good enough reason to take kids into care.
Not having electricity is a valid reason for taking kids into care?? I've heard it all now! Heaven forbid any Amish visiting the area!
I would call the parents moving onto an ILLEGAL caravan site with no electricity (A facility needed to ensure that this kid stays alive i might add) and turning down a legal site with electricity, a clear case of child neglect.
Wouldnt you?
Disgusted of, Westbury says...
7:17pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Rubbish and twaddle. There are parents who break all sorts of laws every day. This does not make them negligent towards their children.
Many parents WITH electricity and running water have sick children on the premises.
I'd better not tell you that I take my kids camping on Dartmoor or you'll have Social Services after me.
Dodgy Dave, Packs Croft Meadows says...
7:22pm Thu 27 Dec 07
It's the National Front I have a problem with.
SwindonNF, Swindon says...
7:25pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Disgusted of wrote:But in this particular childs case, the kids life is DEPENDENT on electricity, in the families own admission and they CHOOSE to live ILLEGALLY in a place with no electricity! (What part of the word "ILLEGAL" dont you understand?)
Rubbish and twaddle. There are parents who break all sorts of laws every day. This does not make them negligent towards their children. Many parents WITH electricity and running water have sick children on the premises. I'd better not tell you that I take my kids camping on Dartmoor or you'll have Social Services after me.
This being the case, they are being very negligent indeed.
SwindonNF, Swindon says...
7:31pm Thu 27 Dec 07
Dodgy Dave wrote:Maybe so, but the National Front are made up of several individuals. Some have a different outlook on life than others. I only provide the view of the extreme right wing (which is my view) on local current events and try challenge my views against other posters.
TBH SwindonNF I think you speak a lot of sense a lot of the time, unlike some people on here who really should get out more - I've seen better from trained monkeys. It's the National Front I have a problem with.
In this story, its the local MP i have a problem with for not forcefully evicting the "ILLEGAL" camp and moving them to a "Perfectly Legal" camp. Especially when there is a kids health in danger.
Dodgy Dave, Packs Croft Meadows says...
7:49pm Thu 27 Dec 07
CHIRPY GIRL, Box says...
11:54pm Thu 27 Dec 07
walter, wilshur says...
6:19am Fri 28 Dec 07
may, warminster says...
9:13am Fri 28 Dec 07
but Like others I don't agree that the sick child should be used as a bargining tool there to much of this minority group culture amongest them to try and get away with issuse that most people would not.
I understand that is child has been Ill and depended on the pump for a long while I would be interested to know why they left the place they were living before
walter, wilshur says...
4:50pm Sun 6 Jan 08
CHIRPY GIRL wrote:Actually, unless some 'ave bin rubbed out, these ain't so bad as some we've had. I agree with you, we should moderate our comments. I think its just that decent, tax-paying folk trying to make ends meet be fair-to-middlin' fed up with freeloaders and scroungers who get away with it all, and the (usually middle class and comfortable) PC lobby who support anything they think will annoy the rest.
I would suggest that if the contributors continue in this way of commenting, our messageboard will be stopped again. Why do people have to make insulting comments? We all have strong feelings about various news stories but can we not keep our views reasonably polite?
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may, warminster says...
1:17pm Thu 27 Dec 07
To go about it the way they do just gets people backs up even though i live with a gypsy they need to realise that the laws of the land apply to us all