More travellers recorded in unauthorised places in Brighton and Hove, according to official count

More traveller caravans were pitched in Brighton and Hove last summer – and more were pitched in unauthorised places, according to the official twice-yearly count.

There were spaces for 44 caravans at the site in Horsdean, owned by Brighton and Hove City Council, but only 29 pitches were occupied when the count took place in July.

When the previous July traveller caravan count took place in 2019 there were 22.

There were nine other caravans pitched in unauthorised places in Brighton and Hove last July – up from six when the previous count took place.

Nationally, about 12 per cent of the total number of caravans were pitched in unauthorised places but the proportion in Brighton and Hove was about twice as high.

The official count found that about 21,000 traveller caravans were on approved pitches across England – almost 90 per cent of those counted.

But some 3,000 were in unauthorised encampments, with most of those on land belonging to travellers or Gypsies.

The main unauthorised encampments in Brighton and Hove over the past few decades have tended to be in public parks, recreation grounds or other open spaces such as Hove Lawns.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said that the figures were from the first official traveller caravan count since January last year.

The count took place on or close to Thursday 22 July and the department said: “While national lockdown restrictions had been lifted before the July 2021 count took place, covid-19 is likely to have impacted traveller movements.”

A draft law before Parliament could threaten the nomadic traditions of Gypsies and travellers by criminalising unauthorised encampments, according to the Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) charity.

The FFT said that the measures – in the the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill – were “draconian”.

If the bill becomes law, it would give the police greater powers to tackle unauthorised encampments, including the right to seize vehicles and impose heavy fines on those trespassing “with intent to reside”.

The FFT’s public affairs and policy manager Abbie Kirkby said that the count failed to capture a “grim lack” of safe stopping spaces.

She said: “It tells us the number of vehicles but nothing about the people and stories behind them.

“With the government’s policing bill making its way through Parliament, Gypsy and traveller people living roadside will soon be caught in a catch-22 of potentially facing prison or being forced to move into bricks and mortar.

“It’s utterly illogical and immoral to use the full force of the law to tell people where they can’t go without telling them where they can go.”

The government said that it welcomed the reduction in unauthorised sites and had provided funding to councils to build traveller sites an in effort to ensure Gypsy, Roma and traveller communities were supported.

The government added: “Through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the government is delivering on a manifesto commitment to strengthen the police’s powers to arrest and seize the vehicles of those who set up unauthorised encampments and cause damage, disruption or distress.”