I am not a hippy. I’m not a crusty. I’m not a gypsy. I work for a living. I pay my taxes and I am a responsible citizen. I believe in recycling. I do not litter. But I want a simple life and so with my husband I’m moving into a van. Maybe we will hate it. Or maybe this is the beginning of a new life.

In search of another life

"They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn..."

Jack Kerouac

Wednesday 11 August 2010

The Council

I recently emailed Caroline Lucus, Brighton Pavilion’s Green MP, to ask about her stance on van dwellers in Brighton. She replied that she would like to see ‘local authorities establish permanent and properly resourced areas for travellers, including van dwellers. She believes that councils should be supported to do so by central government as ‘this is the best way to balance the concerns of permanent local residents with the rights of travellers’.

But I am not convinced it will work. The council already offers the Horsdean Transit Site as a place to stay for gypsies and travellers. I have not been there but it is apparently full of drug addicts. I would be interested to visit in future, but for the time being will have to believe what I have been told. It does seem to be missing the point somewhat though, as many van dwellers don’t actually want a site to live on: they simply want to be left alone.
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