Abstract:
Gypsies and Travellers are one of the most marginalised, vulnerable and socially excluded populations in the UK
today (CRE, 2006, p. 1). Of the diverse travelling communities in the UK, only Romany Gypsies and Irish
Travellers are currently recognised in law as minority ethnic communities (Clark and Greenfields, 2006). Estimates
of the size of the Gypsy and Traveller population (including Scottish Gypsy-Travellers, Welsh Gypsies and New
Travellers) are problematic in the absence of ethnic monitoring, administrative statistics or their inclusion within
census categories. In 2000, it was calculated that there were approximately 300,000 members of these
communities in the UK (Morris and Clements, 2002). With a high rate of population increase, estimated at 3 per
cent per annum (Niner, 2003), the community is growing and in need of appropriate accommodation to meet its
requirements.
