Illegal 'travellers' have attacked couple 230 times

[AB Asks]

A couple who were unfortunate enough to have illegal travellers set up camp next door have suffered 230 attacks from them. One included having a beheaded squirrel left on their drive as well as death threats, criminal damage and trespassing. The area is so dangerous that postmen refuse to deliver there. The police seem to pass off the couple's claims as minor. One of the travellers said to the couple: "once planning enquiry had finished I (Mr Walsh) was going to die a slow and painful death", the police said this was bullying not intimidation. The Walsh's house has lost 50% of its worth so they feel trapped. What do you think? Are the police doing enough? How are these 'travellers' who make no contribution to society allowed to run riot causing suffering and fear to regular citizens in their own home (which they saved for and bought themselves)?

[icemaiden]

Simple- the police are as frightened of the travellers as that poor couple are.

It's beyond belief that these "Travellers" get away with so much.
It would be a very different story if it was regular citizens doing the threatening. Action would have been taken I'm sure.

Would I be allowed to buy a luxury caravan, stick it on a piece of land or grassy lay-by, stay there for as long as I wish, make lots of noise, churn up the ground, (with my nice new 4x4), use the area as a rubbish tip, leave all my body waste behind, get bored of it and move on to the next piece of available land?

I think not.

[Pippa68]

I can't believe that if this story is true, the police are saying it is bullying and not intimidation.

[jake-the-peg]

Of course the story is true but it's only one side.

Usual trash journalism - they visit Mr Walsh and get his story - do they visit the travellers? Do they hell?

Maybe good old Mr Walsh started the whole fight and has been giving as good as he's getting.

But we just don't know because the hack's more interested in writing a "My Gypsy Hell" story than proper journalism.

Looks like it's "the Sun wot dun it" today

[Supernick]

The only link I can find is for the local rag or the Daily Mail. I'm in a charitable mood, and so I'm not going to say that the DM has made it all up, but I just don't trust their reporting an inch. If there was a link to a reputable site then I'd look at it.

[Pippa68]

One of my points exactly, jake.

If it were true I am pretty sure it wouldn't be classed as bullying.

There are a few holes in the story, and my guess is that they are about 6 feet wide.

[sp1814]

Jake

The story stinks to high heaven. I do not for one moment believe that the travellers just suddenly started picking on this family for no reason.

Wish we knew the other side of the story.

[Booldawg]

Maybe the other side of the story was that a post-lobotomy Mr Walsh decided to pick a fight with a whole group of travellers without once considering the repercussions of what that would have on him and his wife. He'd maybe heard that retaliation to his attacks would be met by a stony silence or a strongly worded letter to the local paper - maybe even a solicitors letter or a visit from the police from this be-leaguered, misunderstood bunch of simple romany folk. As the Dr. Peppers ads say; 'Whats the worse that could happen'

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe

But thanks to the lazy journalism we don't know do we?

This is the Sun version for what it's worth
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/arti cle580664.ece

Complete with bold capitalisation just to make sure you've really really got the point

Britains best selling newspaper! what a joke

[helpmetoo]

any bets on jake not reading the 'graudian'?

[kwicky]

Living in a house that is unsaleable he can hardly be called a NIMBY. If the gipsies were removed from this site they would need somewhere else to go to. I wonder what priority they would have when the government starts building the 3 million new homes?

[B00]

Some further info here

http://noakbridge.net/

[horselady]

I work somewhere that is involved in this case. Afraid it is true, whole thing is a nightmare for the residents.

[NikkiB]

I live about 300 metres from the beach. Nearby is a lovely coastal garden and beauty spot. It's always in very good shape and the neatness and cleanliness is generally upheld. Illegal campers/travellers/gypsies - whatever one cares to call them, set up overnight a couple of summer's ago. Everything changed. I couldn't even walk my dog in the area because of all the broken bottles strewn everywhere.

Perhaps it was malicious locals who ploughed up the lawns with wheel spins, then drove off, framing the travellers. Perhaps it was malicious locals who dumped half a ton of human waste, tatty clothing, dog excrement, even chopped off large parts of magnificent trees. Maybe actors were hired to pretend they were foul-mouthed ragamuffins and delinquent children hell-bent on being anti social. Perhaps it was someone from the council who put the broken glass everywhere.
Nothing should be taken at face value. There could have been some, or even a majority of decent people amongst that travelling community. it's just a shame that a minority who appear to live like pigs spoil it for everyone. If so, maybe the decent majority of travellers should disassociate themselves with the slovenly ones. I have nothing against "travellers" per se. It sounds a rather romantic existence. But Enid Blyton never wrote of the reality about where to take a dump safely and hygienically, illegal occupation of private land, the perils of poorly educated children and the naughtiness of cash-in-hand jobbing.

[Hotlardlife]

They are probably embelishing the problem but who cares. Pikies should be shot they are scum of the earth. They are not gypsies in the true sense of the word just scum.

[Ice.Maiden]

True Romany gypsies are a different kettle of fish to the sort described above.

[Lonnie]

I live in Wickford, not far from where this is happening, travellers are taking over, and as said in this article, they help themselves to what they want, and even though its probably a minority, since they set up, crime has gone through the roof.

We have friends who live next to this camp, their house been broken into a few times, and the lives of the local people have been made intolerable, but the police, when they arrive, do nothing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2006/10/19/ucamp.xml

[fagidill]

A Gypo Paid �122.00.00 Pound's Cash For Land, Then Sell's Plot's And Drag's in �600 Thousand Pound's. Doe's THE TAX MAN KNOW !!!!!