Memorandum by the Association of Independent
Showmen (TF 44)
In response to your telephone call recently,
I am sending this letter to elaborate on the existence of the
Association of Independent Showmen. Also enclosed is the Association's
report for your inquiry into Travelling Fairs and I thank you
for allowing me extra time to compile this.
The AIS was formed by a group of travelling
showmen who felt that their membership to other trade bodies,
more well known, was not beneficial to them. Without going into
these other organisations' rules, we cannot fully explain the
implications of membership to these bodies.
We have over 80 members who own and operate
fairground equipment. 85 per cent of membership have showmanship
as their only occupation. In the last 12 months, the AIS arranged
over 70 fairs, nationwide, using only our members' equipment.
The Association is a member of the Joint Advisory
Committee of the Health & Safety Executive—this committee
assists the HSE in bringing about operational regulations in the
fairground industry with three AIS members having proof read the
latest Guidance on Safe Practice.
We have an Education Liaison Officer who attends
meetings of EFFECOT (European Federation for the Education of
the Children of Occupational Travellers) and NATT (National Association
of Teachers of Travellers), advises members of educational requirements
and arranges schooling for members' children whilst on the road
with the assistance of the Traveller Education Service.
Our members are kept informed of the current
legislation on health & safety, education, transport and we
have recently elected a Planning Advisor to the committee to aid
with members' planning applications.
We enclose a copy of our rule book[1]
which, with the help of our area representatives enable members
to operate with the same strict guidelines of the more well known
organisations.
We hope that the Department of Environment will
use the information we provide as a means to assist the showman's
way of life and not to jeopardize it.
TRAVELLING FAIRS
INQUIRY
By the term "we" relates to the AIS
as a group of showmen.
As a basis for our opinions we refer to circ
22/91 "Travelling Showpeople".
Most showmen like to have their families with
them but it is understandable if planners wish to impose restrictions
on the number of residential units on the site. It should not
be assumed that sites will be intensively occupied. Most showmen
like to have the security of being able to return to their yards
in cases of emergency, but what difference should it make what
time of year the site is occupied.
Not all showmen are members of the well known
Showmans Guild of Great Britain because of their financial requests
and restrictive working rules. We have a strict code of conduct
too.
It is a fact that a number of showmen can and
do operate from houses but they no longer attend traditional travelling
fairs. These people perhaps work at fetes/galas and do not leave
their homes for any period of time. However of our membership
there are over 12 families that live and travel in the traditional
way. Only two of these have yards with planning permission. It
needs to be made clear that travelling showmen are not gypsies
or part of the growing new age traveller type. With the assistance
of associations like ours we can help assure the planning committees
that applications are from bona fide travelling showpeople who
travel because of their occupation, not just because they like
it.
Showmen need to live on, maintain and store
their equipment on their yards. More often than not objections
are made because of the fear of excess noise; judgement cannot
be made if there is no proof. All households make some noise and
being a showman does not automatically mean that you make more.
Usually a showman's vehicles do not move once in the yard until
it is time to leave again. Many house-dwellers bring all types
of works vehicles home with them but there tends to be no concern
over this.
There is always the fear that there will be
noise pollution but those who live in houses take no notice of
the neighbour who tinkers with his car every weekend, or keeps
budgies in an aviary or mows his lawn regularly, this is all noise
that may be offensive to someone. People can and do live near
more noisier businesses than that of a showman's yard in the winter;
public houses, for example.
Most maintenance is that of painting but if
there had to be some noisy work done is it not possible for neighbours
to communicate with each other to sort out suitable times to do
this? This policy is able to work both ways.
We admit that sites need to have screening but
time does need to be given to allow hedgerows to grow as it is
not always possible to find a site with immediate all round screening.
However, the showman should not choose a site in the middle of
an open field or housing estate, an ideal site is a farm yard
or the edge of an industrial development.
Each planning application needs to be looked
at by a central department who have the full understanding and
sympathy of why we live the way we do. Surely the old exemption
from site licensing was ideal for all concerned as this allowed
a reasonable amount of control for the councils and ease of living
for the showman. There are not many bona fide travelling showpeople
left who do not have permanent sites, but we do exist and need
more leniency on the planning regulations of some councils. Not
all showmen have large rides and the applications for permanent
sites should be considered as individual and not treated the same
as the last one.
There needs to be a generalisation of the definition
of "detrimental to the environment". One man's view
of this can be totally different to anothers. In some people's
eyes being a travelling showman makes you automatically "detrimental"
and that's before you have even applied for planning permission.
It is a sad fact that the majority of people who are opposed to
the yards of showmen are those in the upper class bracket of life
and these are normally the ones on parish councils and planning
committees. We have to have a way to stop this narrow mindedness
as this is one very big obstacle in our way.
The circular 22/91 states that there should
be adequate publicity for showmen's planning applications; why
does this need to be stressed upon more so than any other application?
That in itself is prejudicial.
To prevent the resale of yards after permission
is granted could there not be restrictions put on at the planning
stage as to the type of people allowed to habitate the site? This
would prevent resale to undesirables later on. We suppose that
the Government's ideal is for everyone to live in a house and
do a nine to five job, but many of the bona fide travelling showpeople
cannot just give up a lifestyle and livelihood at the drop of
a hat. The travelling fair is still a financially viable operation
but admittedly more and more showmen are settling in houses and
doing other work too. For the few of us left living the traditional
life we need to be near our equipment for security whilst we are
in the different towns and villages.
We believe that a showman should be able to
pull onto a suitable site, with the agreement of the local council
for a trial run of one winter period and if at the end, and end
only, there are no objections that cannot be rectified then permission
be granted. The objections should not be considered until the
end of the trial period as this would prevent enforcement orders
being made on the land and the showmen being made "homeless"
at a difficult time of year. If of course there is solid proof
that illegal or unlawful activities are occurring this could be
dealt with by the usual policing or environmental health policies.
The sites should, as mentioned before, be in
a suitable location but it must be accepted that there may be
some temporary viasability of the site until after full permission
is granted as it is unlikely that anyone would pay the price of
various screening until they know that the site is permanent and
the money not wasted.
The old adage "the proof of the pudding
is in the eating" is very true, do not judge us before you
know us. The inbuilt fear people have of travellers is usually
unfounded and, if we are given the chance, people's opinions of
us change. Without that chance being given there is no hope for
us in being allowed the peace and security that every man deserves.
For your interest we have listed a few of the
objections to planning made to members of the Association of Independent
Showmen in their plight at finding a suitable base.
"I can see a lorry because the leaves have
fallen off the hedge. I haven't heard any noise from there but
they really shouldn't be there. In fact they are lowering the
value of my property"
This objection was relating to one living wagon
and two lorries, surrounded by deciduous hedgerows. The site already
had planning permission on it for a house and race horse stud.
The showmen were evicted from the site two weeks before the birth
of their first child. The site is still unbuilt on but is used
for the storage of manure and agricultural machinery.
"There is no screening and is therefore detrimental
to the environment"
This site was originally one three acre area.
The two outside yards were sold and used, with planning permission,
as this: a builders storage yard with a chalet bungalow newly
installed, surrounded by a six foot high fence constructed from
motorway crash barriers. The other side was a caravan site used
for housing foreign students who were illegally working on the
land and a lake of human excrement to be used on the land.
The showman planted larch and conifers around
his perimeter but the planners said this was the wrong type of
tree for the area. On appeal the council refused time to allow
natural hedgerows to grow. For living purposes the showman required
three residential mobile units but enforcement orders were placed
on the land preventing habitation by showmen, storage of lorries
and scrap. On enquiring what the scrap was, this was the showmans
1953 traditional fairground ride which was insured, safety tested
and used during the season to earn the showmans living.
The land was subsequently sold to gypsies and
immediate planning permission granted for three permanent chalets.
There is still no screening.
"The site is in a green belt area"
The showman owned twenty acres of orchard with
the original vehicular access. In the middle of the land, the
showman and his family used an area of 0.5 acre and lived in two
living wagons and had two lorries. With the prospect of retiring
he thought for his childrens future security he would apply for
planning consent. This was refused and enforcement orders issued.
After paying rates and council tax for the ten years they have
lived on the land they all had to leave. The children were removed
from school and the family once again had to find somewhere else
to go.
"Permission is refused as there is a fear
that the yard will be sold on to gypsies"
This was completely unfounded. On speaking,
off the record, to the head of the planning committee, he said
that they liked the showmen living in the area but they did not
want gypsies moving in if the yards were sold. There are now four
families hoping that an appeal will reverse the decision of the
local council.
The inquiry would probably not believe that
there is prejudice against showmen which could damage their prospects
of ever finding a permanent yard. Below are some of more humorous
comments made to or overheard by the author of this report. It
is unlikely that these opinions would ever be voiced to those
living in a house and we find it very offensive that people should
have the opinion that we are any different to the next man.
Overheard on a village green. "That woman's
washing is always clean. I wonder how she does it?" I didn't
have the heart to tell her that not only have I got a washing
machine but also a tumble drier!
Overheard at school. "That little girl
is always clean and at school on time." I didn't have the
care to ask these people why they thought my daughter should not
be clean and attending school.
Said to my husband by a customer. "It must
be lovely not having the usual bills to pay" Wrong! We pay
rent to the various councils, National Insurance, Income Tax,
Council Tax and all other household bills if we are fortunate
enough to be connected to domestic services.
"You lot are gypsies" To a showman
this is like comparing a Sikh to a Muslim.
The Association of Independent Showmen appreciate
the time you are taking in reading this report.
This report should be read in conjunction to
the letter written by Janet Catton of Cattons Fun Fairs which
is already in the Committees possession.
February 2000
1 Ev. not printed. Back
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