Traveller sites

Allister Craddock
BBC Politics Show
East Midlands

You can read some of your comments on the latest programme here...

For Romany Gypsies, Tom and Muzelley McCready, it's a way of life

The East Midlands Politics Show looks at how local authorities are responding to government pressure to provide more sites for gypsies and travellers.

The government has told councils they must assess the need for sites in their areas by the end of 2007.

The Department of Communities and Local Government is holding a stick to local authorities and offering them a carrot at the same time.

The department's message... prove you are taking sufficient steps to tackle the problem and you will be able to use new powers to remove travellers from illegal sites more quickly.

Nimby...

Sean Sadler wants more time to voice objections

But when it comes to it, councils are encountering the same old problem: virtually no one wants a gypsy or travellers' site near them.

Derby City Council has chosen a site on land near Osmaston while Leicestershire has gone back to the drawing board after residents' opposition to three sites identified as a possible plot for travellers' caravans.

Robin Powell speaks to politicians who are under pressure to come up with sites, and to people who claim travellers have caused serious problems in a business park.

Time to talk

He also hears first-hand from a gypsy family on the kind of problems they face.

In the studio, our political editor, John Hess, will be talking to Dr. John Coxhead, a serving police officer who has recently published a book entitled: "The last bastion of racism? Gypsies, Travellers and Policing".

He says politicians have got to get out of committee rooms and spend more time talking to travellers on the ground.

Let us know what you think.

Would providing more sites defuse a lot of the tensions between travellers and residents?

Also in the East Midlands Politics Show:

Northampton North MP, Sally Keeble, warns that more and more people are at risk of losing their homes TWICE.

With an increasing number of people being taken to court for mortgage arrears, more home owners are falling victim to a new ploy by finance companies.

The way it works: companies offer to buy houses at a big discount and then rent them back to the people involved.

But the Citizens Advice Bureau says many find they have no security of tenure. Soon their homes are at risk again.

Sally Keeble will be telling us she wants the government and the Financial Services Authority to give potential victims greater protection.

Also...

Passions run high when it comes to seal protection

An animal rights activist tells us he is prepared to go to jail in his campaign against the culling of seal cubs in Canada.

He was arrested for allegedly breaching the exclusion zone around the killing of cubs.

And he is due in court next week. He says if he is fined he will refuse to pay.

Amber Valley MP, Judy Mallaber, is campaigning for the European Union to take tougher action against the killing of seals.

And she has presented a petition to Parliament urging the government to become more actively involved.

'We'll be speaking to Canada's Fisheries Ambassador, Loyola Sullivan.

Join Jon Sopel and John Hess on the Politics Show for the East Midlands on Sunday 14 October at 12:00 BST on BBC One

Let us know what you think

Ring us with your views on 0500 900 900 or email on the form below

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