Memorandum by Mr A A K Miller, General
Secretary of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain (TF 02)
My name is Albert Anthony Keith Miller, I am
57 years of age, and I am the General Secretary of The Showmen's
Guild of Great Britain, an appointment I have held since 12 May
1986 and I conduct my duties as General Secretary from the Guild's
Registered Office, situated at Guild House, Staines, Middlesex.
What follows is my written memorandum for consideration
by the Environment Sub-committee.
I intend to address the points referred to in
the published Press Notice dated 21 December 1999, which will
appear at the head of each section of my memoranda.
1. The particular needs of travelling showpeople
in carrying out their trade.
2. The effectiveness of existing planning
guidance on the provision of quarters for travelling showpeople.
3. Whether any action is necessary to ensure
that appropriate regard is had to the need of travelling showpeople
within the planning system.
In my view these three sub headings are inextricably
linked insofar as if points 2 and 3 are problematical, which they
are, it is axiomatic that Travelling Showpeople will be denied
any opportunity to carry out their trade (point 1).
Historically, it was recognised by the SGGB
that the assistance and guidance contained within the now defunct
DOE Circular 23/83 had been overtaken by the passage of time and
the subject matter of that Circular needed looking at afresh.
Instigated by the then Co-Chairman (Mrs Marion
Roe, MP) of the SGGB's All Party Group, approaches were made to
the incumbent Secretary of State for the Environment, and over
a three year period regular meetings were held between the SGGB
and the DOE resulting in the publication of current Circular 22/91
on 6 December 1991.
Initially the publication Circular 22/91 proved
beneficial to members of the SGGB in the course of planning application
submissions.
The albeit few benefits were particularly rewarding
in that it illustrated to local authority Planning Departments
that Travelling Showpeople were not "New Age Travellers"
or itinerant groups who were, and still are, receiving somewhat
stringent media coverage, but hard working business people who
bring a great deal of enjoyment to the public who attend their
Fairs.
Throughout the UK my members have lost many
of their quarters and of course, young families are growing and
the older members of the families are living longer, but my members
do tend to be a much more closely knit group than non-Showmen,
and the old and young people prefer to live more closely together.
They do have special and different needs to
other groups in the community, such as specific needs regarding
land use categories, but they do not come under one specific heading,
their need is not solely for commercial use, nor solely for residential
use, but a combination of both.
Although this important point is recognised
and addressed in Circular 22/91, it is, in the main, ignored by
local authority Planning Departments.
Another important point I must touch on are
the usual quality of life services members who have a permanent
base enjoy, which other members whilst awaiting the outcome of
Planning procedures, do not.
They are somewhat obvious, but nevertheless
need to be stated, and they are:
1. The education of children when not travelling;
2. Health care for the whole family unit,
both young and old;
3. Whilst referring to our aged members,
one must also bear in mind giving them the opportunity to enjoy
a settled base to live when they become ill, a scenario we all
have to consider with increasing age;
4. The enjoyment and satisfaction of their
spiritual needs, individuals and groups outside of our Industry
do not seem to appreciate that Travelling Showpeople have a spiritual
need that has to be sated, and guidance and counselling from a
Cleric can be of great comfort in times of need.
In summary, I believe I have illustrated the
lack of effectiveness of existing planning guidance on the provision
of quarters for Travelling Showpeople, and I believe you can expect
to receive further cogent illustrations from Planning Consultancy
Practices who have hands on experience of this problem.
Ideally, I would like to see a designated PPG
in place to assist my members in planning matters, even a reference
to the problem in an existing PPG would go a long way to assisting
my members in their planning problems.
I trust the detail herein explains my early
reference to the inextricable link of the 3 sub headings in this
part of my submission.
4. The continued value of historic travelling
fairs.
5. The provision of sites for travelling
fairs.
One particular issue which appears to be an
ever-increasing problem to the Showpeople in the organisation
of their Fairs is the loss of Fairground sites within town centres,
which I believe is pertinent to the sub headings of this section
of my memorandum. The main cause of these losses is through redevelopment,
or indeed pedestrianisation/enhancement schemes, which preclude
the setting up of Fairs. This problem appears to be occurring
throughout the country and I would cite three examples to highlight
the difficulties.
Firstly in the City of Norwich, Christmas and
Easter Fairs have been held for many years. From 1818 until December
1987 Christmas Fairs were held on the open space below the castle,
formerly used as a cattle market, which had vacated the site in
1960 and then became a car park. In 1988 a major development took
place creating a covered shopping mall, thus displacing the two
Fairs, which moved to the site of the new cattle market on the
outskirts of the city.
Unfortunately the new site was not successful
and, on the completion of the new mall, representations to the
Council for a return to the city centre resulted in the Fairs
being located on a major city thoroughfare alongside the castle
in the street known as Castle Meadow. The Showmen were led to
believe that they could expect the site to be a permanent home
for their Fairs and were required to go to the expense of having
permanant earthing stakes installed. However, being major thoroughfare,
the presence of the Fairs unavoidably caused disruption to traffic
during its occupation of the site and the most vociferous were
the local bus company. The Fairs operated on this site until Easter
1998.
Early in 1998 the local bus company approached
the City Council to allow an experiment whereby only buses could
use Castle Meadow so that their services could be improved. In
May 1998 the experiment started, which not only forced the cars
out of the street, but the Fairs also.
There being no suitable alternative site in
the city available for the Fair (apart from one car park for the
Easter 1998 Fair, which is no longer available as it is currently
being dug up by archaeologists prior to Norwich's new library
being built on it), the major part of the Fairs no longer have
a home. An "annexe" of the Fair consisting of small
rides and stalls has occupied some of the smaller pedestrianised
streets, but they are not suitable for major rides and other attractions.
The only alternative site currently being offered
by the Council is a park in a corner of the city centre. Unfortunately
this surface is mostly grass with little hardstanding and, for
Christmas and Easter, because of the likelihood of unfavourable
weather conditions, it is judged by most Showmen to be unsuitable,
although there is a chance that this may be tried out.
On the whole the City Council has done all it
could to ensure that the Fairs had a site, but through pressures
of redevelopment and other representations the Showmen are now
in a difficult position without a permanent site and having lost
two major Fairs within their circuits. The result of this displacement
is not only the effect on reducing the viability and vitality
of the town centre, but also the reduction in income to the Showpeople,
who are all self-employed business people.
Secondly in the West Country the number of Fairs
that are able to operate in the Bournemouth and Poole conurbation
has been severely reduced due to town centre redevelopment. This
has forced the Showpeople to look much further afield and in much
smaller towns (and in some cases villages) for sites on which
to set up their Fairgrounds. This has the same knock-on effect
on the town, as well as on the Showpeople's livelihoods, as set
out above.
Finally I refer to problems experienced by the
Midland Section of The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain, in respect
of Warwick town centre. Here the Council do appear to be providing
for the future of the two "Mop" Fairs, but The Guild
is concerned that at the end of the current licence arrangement
(the year 2003) the Council may not be as receptive to renewal
on the same terms as before
As the Government has recently issued a Direction
in respect of the loss of playing fieldsThe Town and Country
Planning (Playing Fields) (England) Direction 1998we are
making representations through this inquiry in the hope that a
similar Direction may be able to be made in respect of Fairground
sites. Alternatively some encouragement and direction to Local
Planning Authorities to retain Fairground sites within town centres
could be established within any revision to PPG 6Town Centres
and Retail Development.
January 2000
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