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CARAVAN SITES AND CONTROL OF DEVELOPMENT ACT, 1960
MIDDLESEX COUNTY COUNCIL ACT, 1944
An application for a site licence in respect of the use of a caravan on a vacant site
in Perivale was granted for a period of six months. Town Planning permission and
consent under Section 345 of the County Council Act, 1944, were also obtained.
In this case the caravan was occupied by a student completing a course at London
University.
The position as to itinerant or gipsy caravan dwellers has greatly improved during
the last year. These people still visit the Borough but it has proved far more easy to
control them, as the Council's warden is now equipped with a special four-wheel
drive vehicle which enables him to patrol the Borough constantly and tow off caravans
on road verges, and Corporation land. Assistance is also rendered by the warden to
owners of private land on which gipsies are trespassing.
In February, 1962, the Minister of Housing and Local Government issued a circular
to all local authorities, urging them to help and encourage gipsies to attempt to find
a settled way of life and asking County Councils to make a survey of the gipsies
within their areas. On the 13th June, 1962, a conference was held at the Guildhall,
Westminster, at which representatives from most of the Middlesex District Councils
were present. The conference discussed the Ministry's circular and decided to institute
a survey of all gipsy or itinerant caravan dwellers within the County. This survey
revealed that there were on the survey day six caravans in Ealing containing thirteen
adults and five children.
A further meeting of this conference is to be held to discuss the methods which
might be adopted to provide a permanent settlement for these caravan dwellers.
In the meantime the normal methods of control by the Public Health department
and the warden are continuing to prove effective.