An altercation between people understood to be Travellers and a member of the public in an Exeter park has been caught on film.
The footage, posted on Facebook, shows a woman standing in front of a van while making a phone call, and the driver moves the vehicle slowly forward towards her.
The woman on the phone then shouts something to him, which appears to include the words ‘just hit me’, referring to the van.
Then the driver jumps out of the van, which has a caravan attached, shouting that “you’re blocking us in”, gets back into the vehicle and moves the van forward slowly again.
He can be heard saying “let us out”, “please let us go”, and “stop, you’re harassing us”, before he drives off at higher speed, followed by another van towing a caravan, whose number plate matches the layout of Irish number plates.
The person filming then says to the woman on the phone that “they actually hit you, we’ve got it on video”.
The footage was posted by the Heavitree and Exeter Community Facebook page. It is not clear, however, who has shot the footage.
The fracas comes as local politicians in Exeter claim they are at their “wit’s end” over the issue of travellers, and feel that those in higher power are not doing enough to tackle the issue.
Councillor Ed Hill (Independent, Pinhoe and Mincinglake), said he had lobbied the city’s MP, Steve Race (Labour) on the issue numerous times, asking him to try and push for the legislative changes to improve the ability for action to be taken.
“I’ve asked Mr Race many times about travellers and what he’s going to do about it,” Cllr Hill said.
“Last year, I even started an e-petition asking that the relevant legislation [specific sections[of the Criminal Justice and Public Order (CJPO) Act 1994], be amended so that the police must move travellers on when the conditions are met rather than leaving it to land owners and the councils to pick up the bill for instructing bailiffs and court applications.
“Under S61, the police can force them to move immediately, but where the police don’t, land owners have to embark on a lengthy and costly civil process, while in the meantime local residents often endure anti-social behaviour, criminal damage, intimidation and theft from business and property.
“The cost to the community through the inaction of the police is astronomical.”
Mr Race said while the issue was one for the police and local councils, he did talk to residents across the city about unauthorised encampments.
He said he wrote to the relevant councils as well as the county’s police force, and had recently received a reply from the Minister of State for Policing and Crime on the powers available in law.
“This is a complex issue to legislate on and to tackle locally, as the rights of individuals to live without discrimination must be balanced against the concerns of communities when unauthorised encampments occur,” Mr Race said.
“Any crime and anti-social behaviour that accompanies camps must be swiftly dealt with, and the law does provide mechanisms for the police to act to move encampments on. It is up to Devon and Cornwall Police to decide how to use these powers on a case-by-case basis.
“The anti-social behaviour caused by some groups is totally unacceptable and causes very significant disturbance and distress to residents. I urge anyone who witnesses criminal behaviour to report this to the police so that they can enforce against it.”
The government website states that the CJPO Act was “significantly amended” in 2022 in relation to police powers to respond to unauthorised encampments.
The House of Commons Library states that as of January 2022, in England there were 515 Traveller caravans reported on unauthorised encampments – land now owned by Travellers – which equated to 2 per cent of the total number of Traveller caravans recorded.
In the 2021 census, 71,440 people in England and Wales gave their ethnic group as Gypsy or Irish Traveller, representing 0.12 per cent of the population, and 103,020 gave their ethnic group as Roma, representing 0.20 per cent of the population.
A government report from 2019 stated: “The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
“Romany Gypsies, Scottish Travellers and Irish Travellers have been declared by the courts to be protected as races under the Act.”
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