“Finally! someone gets it right for a change.
Romany Gypsies are no longer on the road, instead these are Irish travellers. The paper should state their ethnicity, after all, it has no qualms when tagging us with stories that are nothing to with our people.”

“Hmmm, I wonder if 'this particular group' of travellers has been given a log book too. From my experience I would expect not. And I would also add that you should not believe all you read in the papers. Most of the articles printed about us were one-sided biased accounts based on rumours and lies and predjudice. I found it very disheartening when we tried our best to keep our sites clean and tidy and still get allegations of all sorts. I agree that after a while it gets so disspiriting that I can see why travellers could get a giving up don't care attitude.”

“I am 61 years old. Having worked all my life so far, I happened upon some very unfortunate circumstances that involved losing my wife, my job, my house. I bought a small caravan to live in. I started off living on the street, but I was broken into, suffered harassment from passer by, drunk people, and perfectly 'respectable' people who scratched and damaged my van as often as they could when they walked past. It was very distressing. Luckily for me I had a friend who had some traveller friends who let me move onto a site with them until I picked myself back up. They welcomed me, a virtual stranger, without predjudice, which was a breath of fresh air amongst the reception I got wherever else I went. They suffer direct abuse, including both verbal and physical, from 'civilised' house dwellers. Not once did I ever see them retaliate. They are never given a chance, as soon as they arrive in an area they are bad mouthed by the press, accused of all sorts that they were not guilty of, and subsequently hated by people who didn't even know them. I do hope that none of the house-dwellers near entry hill, or any of the other commenters against 'travellers' here find themselves in my situation. However, I'm sure if you do, the 'travellers' would be more likely to help you out after your own neighbours turn their backs on you.”

“After reading the comments on this story I can conclude and suggest a solution. It'll work, too!

I am a traveller. For me to earn a living I have to travel. It seems by many comments on here that residents local to the Entry Hill site, whilst coming up with no practical solutions to the problem of homelessness*, are perfectly willing to pass all their woes on to another house-dwelling community. Get them off, pass the buck to another of your precious estates. How social of you all, you must care about your fellow house-dwellers the next town along as much as you do the travellers. Still, someone else's problem now. Good luck to you.

So here's my solution: boycott.

To force travellers off the road, never buy potatoes (picking is a traditional way of making a living). Similarly, onions, brocolli, plums, apples, strawberries,raspberries etc. Never drink beer, as it is more than likely your hops have been picked by travellers. I have friends who travel to Europe to do the grapes, so wine is out too.

Don't eat lamb. Travellers do lambing.

Many types of flowers are out too, I'm afraid, Mum. Any daffodils, sweet williams, carnations, tulips, list goes on. Travellers pick them, sorry. But you'll thank me in the end.

Don't buy off Ebay. A relatively new diversification for travellers in the winter months, but it helps make a living while there is little work on.

Never go to a circus or fairground. This should be obvious. Never go to a festival - you'd be surprised at how much is designed, built, put on or maintained on site - or cleaned up by the traveller litter-picking crews. Many of you knew that one was coming and it wouldn't be much loss to you, but, also, never go to county shows, village fetes, traditional horse- or sheep-fairs or town markets. You'd be amazed at what nice baskets, stained-windows, metal and woodcraft are designed and made whilst we are being so jobless.

I know this is getting tricky but bear with me:

Never buy from a shop that warehouses stock. Unskilled labour is, unsurprisingly (like most of the above - badly paid, few want to do it) easy to come by. Driving jobs are a favourite too, so your tin of beans/ sofa may have passed through a travellers hands.

This is a short list believe it or not, but all in all, this should force us off the road. Probably on to the streets, yes, however I'm sure you'll email in saying how horrible Bath's streets have become,and how *someone* should do something about it.

But in the transitional period, don't think you can lie back, satisfied your boycott has worked. You could complain about how more foreigners are coming over and doing the work British people could do.

A point was made about a self-fullfilling prophesy earlier on and to a certain extent they are right. No-one cares about us. Never have done. Many travellers have had problems in life (I'll leave it at that because they are so diverse, sometimes sickening - you wouldn't want to know) but rather than being on the streets they have found a better way, and a better - more caring - community, in which to live. Many of us now have (indeed, some for a very long while) money to buy land for our own selves and to cater for others. Will somebody please tell me where we can live rather than where we can't! A solution can and must be reached.

Thanks for reading.

*Actually, travellers do not see themselves as homeless but rather needing places to park homes and equipment in the times both are unemployed - somewhere they can get ready for the next season or fair, or simply to obtain employment during winter months.”

“To clarify and apologise - my reference to wierd preferences was not intended as an offensive dig at caravan living - more trying to point out that lots of people have slightly out of the ordinary desires, which whilst seemingly harmless when considered in isolation, would present a community nightmare if we all were allowed to indulge say just one each. By way of examples, those preferences might be painting a door shocking pink in the middle of the Royal Crescent, driving too fast, building a life size replica of Stephensons Rocket in the back garden from used milk bottles, not wearing school uniform etc. To live as a reasonably cohesive society we all have to conform to a degree - including rowdy estate residents!

The fact however remains - this group (rather than generalisations) had every chance of staying on this land because of the councils failings. However because they couldn't behave in an acceptable manner, not only have they produced enough evidence to get themselves chucked off, but they've also further reinforced the stereotypes. Everytime this happens it makes it harder for the decent travellers to progress and makes people more likely to have a kneejerk reaction.”

“I'd count your chickens now PW before they leave.”

“Finally the council have acted! Thanks to Marian McNeir and David Bellotti for their work on behalf of the residents. But let's not count our chickens until they have actually left.”

“no, probably "Super Pouper"”

“Gimme, Gimme, Gimme ?”

“Just wondering what Abba song C A Ravan was alluding to. 'Thank you for the music?' perhaps. I had some traveller friends who lived on the Oldfield School site years ago. They worked hard and were popular members of our church. They were also a very musical family.”