HC Deb 02 April 1963 vol 675 cc214-5
9. Mr. Dodds

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will make a statement on the problem of gypsies and other travellers in England and Wales resulting from the national survey; and what is being done to deal with this situation.

Mr. Corfield

Since the surveys were made discussions have taken place with the county councils chiefly concerned and further progress has been made in deciding how many sites are needed and where they should be. My right hon. Friend and I hope to see several more sites available by next winter.

Mr. Dodds

I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for that reply. While it can be accepted that some counties will be dragging their feet, will he say what his right hon. Friend is doing to see that counties that are dragging their feet are being forced to live up to their responsibilities?

Mr. Corfield

The hon. Gentleman knows, I think, that we have no powers of enforcement, but I can assure him I am keeping a very close check on all the authorities concerned and, in the case of a very few laggards, I am doing my best to persuade them.

10. Mr. Dodds

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs, in view of the unsatisfactory situation for gypsies and other travellers within the boundaries of the Romsey and Stockbridge Rural District Council, what information he has received from the council regarding their proposals for dealing with this problem, in which many children are involved.

Mr. Corfield

My right hon. Friend has received no information from the rural district council on this matter. I understand, however, that Hampshire County Council intends to establish hutted camps for gypsies and other travellers, and that it already has a site in mind for one of these camps, which will take people from the Romsey and Stockbridge rural district.

Mr. Dodds

I thank the Hampshire County Council for what it is seeking to do, but is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that a prominentlocal Conservative, who has spent over £500 trying to defend the interests of these people, says that they are being treated worse than animals? Does not he think it shocking that in Christian and democratic Britain the local rural district council can treat people as it has been doing for a long while? Would he not think that if we lived up to what we claim we should be in a much better position to criticise South Africa and other countries for the way in which they treat their outcasts?

Mr. Corfield

As I have told the hon. Gentleman, I have had no information from the rural district council concerned, but I have been impressed with the particularly humane way in which the county council is intending to deal with this problem.