Understanding the Traveller's ethos.

Travellers are living on an unauthorised encampment on common moorland belonging to the Rosecraddoc Manor estate in Cornwall. Trespassing is considered a civil matter, not a criminal offence, but solicitors for the landlords have issued a 14 day notice to leave the site. The Travellers have agreed.

Resenting the term 'hippies', the Travellers have invited local residents to come and see their way of life in an effort to be understood. One man argues his point of domestic tourism within the South West with overnight trips in caravans representing 19% of the total of trips in England. If tourists can do this en masse every summer, he says, why can they not do the same throughout the year?

A local landowner with grazing rights believes Travellers should be kept away from open countryside and be provided clean and safe fixed Gypsy and Traveller settlements.

Although there are a number of authorised private sites in Devon, there is still a serious shortage of sites for Gypsy and Travellers across the country as a whole. This has led to groups camping on land that they do not own, or at times developing land without planning permission.

At present (2022), approximately one in five Gypsy and Traveller caravans in England are on unauthorised sites. 90% of submitted Traveller planning applications fail. With the current cost of living crisis meaning more people are unable to break into the property market or even afford to rent, more and more people are taking to living in their vehicles.

Nowadays there is much less of a distinction between hippies, the Traveller community and van dwellers, those who just need a comfortable bed for the night. In Bristol alone, there are an estimated 200 people living in vans in the parks surrounding the city, and due to a legal loophole, if MOT'd and road-taxed the vehicles cannot be made to move on (unless it is a caravan).