"So, based on your mail, there should exist details of the boroughs not claiming exemption and the number of sites required. "
They'll be a little out of date, but they would be a rough guide.
The police usually keep records of Travellers in the area as do local Councils, social services and doctors who have been visited.
Traveller organisations like The Gypsy Council and The Romany Guild have usually co-operated with assisting and in the old days. Sympathetic solicitors like Norman Bell and others offered their skills to assist Travellers - all kept records.
Nationally, Gratton Puxon, M.P. Norman Dodds and Jeremy Sandford are now dead, I think, but records of their work must still exist.
For Irish and Scots Travellers, the Churches have always been ready to assist.
If the old requirement numbers are no longer available or relevant, it wouldn't take much more than phone calls and a circulation of questionnaires to arrive at a rough estimate - then it could be done over time by simple observation.
It's all ben done before.
I am certainly not intolerant that other views exist - I know they do - this is what we have been discussing - what these views mean in relation to a group of people with a dire problem is a different matter.
It has taken us over five days to get as far just considering the practicalities of any suggestion.
I fail to see why hospitals and schools should come into any of this unless you accept the principle that the lesser well off should be the ones who suffer to assist the even lesser well off
If The Government can find funding for Trident Missiles it's a sad state of affairs if they can't readjust their present policies to provide basic stopping places for the current Traveller Traveller population - this is not a case of finding new funding but to re-direct cash being already spent to evict and harass those with no official stopping places - I suggest you look up how much it cost to evict those families occupying Dale Farm and then to contiue moving on those families who could find no new sites - sort of like kicking around a heap of rubbish until it dissipated.
Why abandon a long standing term like Travellers in order when it is perfectly serviceable, understand and acceptable and documented - it's been log established that Travellers are a distinct cultural group with a history stretching back at least a millienium
Jim Carroll (Ex Liverpool supporter - chuckle, chuckle again!!)

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