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Fenland branded the traveller capital of UK
Councillors have rejected a new claim that the Fens have become the gypsy capital of the UK.
Councillors have rejected a new claim that the Fens have become the gypsy capital of the UK.The outburst comes after a national report found that the Fenland area, which covers Chatteris, March, Whittlesey and Wisbech, has more than 6,000 gypsy residents.
It is also claimed in the Daily Express report that the area is being earmarked for more travellers' sites as part of "highly controversial" plans to provide new pitches for 25,000 gypsies and travellers in the next three years.
And it points out that up to 180 new pitches, with space for up to three caravans each, could be built in Fenland with about 140,000 being spent in Wisbech St Mary extending one of the five official sites in and around the village.
But leader of Fenland District Council Geoff Harper said: "The report is nonsense. There are only plans to introduce about 89 new pitches, not 180."
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Community leaders say there is a sizeable gypsy population in the area.But Mr Harper added: "We at Fenland have got a reputation for managing this side of the business quite well.
"We have a national reputation as one of the best."
And Fenland District Council spokesman Terry Brownbill said: "The report did little to reflect or promote the largely harmonious relationship between the traveller and non-traveller communities in Fenland."
Figures in a travellers' needs assessment survey published by Cambridgeshire County Council show that while the eastern region has 11 per cent of the UK's overall population, it has 23 per cent of gypsy caravans.
And it adds: "The total gypsy/traveller caravan numbers were steady at about 200 until the late 1990s, but since then have risen sharply to around 500."
It states that the Fenland district has one of the highest number of gypsy/traveller caravans in England.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire County Council, which covers Fenland, said: "Cambridgeshire has the largest number of travellers in its county than any other in the UK, and this community represents our largest ethnic minority."
And he said: "Travellers have an ancestry here that goes back further than most of the settled residents, and are attracted to the area by the summer fairs, agricultural work, and, of course, family occasions."
Across Cambridgeshire there are 10 local authority-run travellers' sites, with five of them in Fenland.
Two are in east Cambridgeshire, two in the south of the county, and one in Huntingdon.
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