WITH reference to your front page story of Wednesday, November 21, titled Five Year Search for Gypsy Camp, I would also like to claim a plot of land from the district council.
Ideally, I would like the land to be near some allotments to keep my food bill to a minimum, I would like all the services supplied free of charge and have a toilet close by.
I have a sneaking suspicion I will not be successful in my request.
I have, however ,got a contingency plan.
At the age of 16, with an eye on the future, I got a job, I worked hard, I saved and saved and eventually I bought a house.
I have continued to work hard and abide by the rule that says the harder you work the more you can have.
I only write this advice as a pointer to where the family of travellers went wrong.
We have plenty of people resident in this area who are eager to purchase property or land in their lifetime, and are predominantly working hard in trying to achieve this.
They ask for no handouts or favours as there are none.
As a left-field idea, if the district council is hell-bent on habiting this site, then it should build an affordable house and sell it at cost to one of these hard-working locals.
The time and money wasted debating this issue within the council chamber will probably cost the equivalent of building another property.
This is not to cast aspersions on the traveller family’s values or integrity.
But the family chose a way of life, or chose to continue that way of life.
I see no reason why, now that is not suitable for them, that we a community need to help them.
Sell the caravans and the vehicles, count the money, get a wage-paying job and buy or rent a house.
Just like the rest of us have to do and then they will be a Derbyshire Dales resident at no cost or inconvenience to the rest of us.
Failing that, if it is against their core values, I for one will be happy to wave and wish them well as they pass peacefully through Ashbourne on the way to their new home.
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHELD
