Travellers plead to be given a chance (From Bucks Free Press)

Travellers plead to be given a chance

1:50pm Tuesday 14th April 2009 in News By James Nadal

Travellers plead to be given a chance

A FAMILY of travellers who bought land in Princess Risborough has pleaded with the community to give them a chance, saying they “just want a place to call home”.

The group of nine families is desperate for their children to have an education and provide better care for one of their number, a 24-year-old blind woman who was born with no eyes.

Margaret Murphy is not able to get a guide dog without a permanent residence, they say.

The travellers began construction on the site, in Upper Icknield Way, just off Shootacre Lane in Princess Risborough, on Easter Friday.

They have built a wooden fence around the perimeter of the land.

Wycombe District Council has issued a stop notice which prevents them from bringing in anymore stonework to the site.

Patrick Hanrahan, 58, spokesman for the families, said: “This is really important, it’s a life or death situation.

“We have been on the road all our life and we just want a place to call home.

“I have 11 kids, we have been moved from pillar to post and my elderly mother needs doctors’ care.

“My children have no education we want to get them into schools.”

Mr Hanrahan said that it had been a long term goal to settle in one area and every resource had gone into making it happen.

“Every penny I have has gone into this place, we just about scraped enough money together between us,” he said.

Wycombe District Council is understood to be taking out a court injunction to stop the work going ahead.

Mr Hanrahan said: “We thought that was going to happen but we will just have to fight it.

“We are all British subjects and we have as much right to be here as anyone else.”

Some concerned residents have expressed fears about their new neighbours but Mr Hanrahan said, although he understands their view, they have nothing to worry about.

“We will be no nuisance to neighbours, we won’t bother them or even ask them for the time of day,” he said.

“I know it’s a bit of a surprise for them and they must think the foreign troops have landed but they need not be apprehensive in any way at all.”

The families plan to build individual plots with sanitary facilities and they say the area will be kept clean.

Gary Hall, district councillor for Princess Risborough and former town mayor, said he and residents had deep concerns.

He said: “It was a total shock to the whole community.

“Everyone is worried, especially those who live near by.

“I don’t welcome it whatsoever, it’s on greenbelt land. It doesn’t look pretty, it’s on nice open fields. They have destroyed the local lanes by carrying through all their rubbish and mud.

“I’m just very uncomfortable with it and I know my colleagues are as well.

“We’re unanimous. It’s not welcome or appropriate and has got to be clamped down on.

“The district council is doing all it can at the moment.”

He said he was concerned about “antisocial behaviour and tumbling property prices” due to media stories about travellers’ camps in Essex.

Construction could be finished in a month if the travellers are allowed to continue, they said.