Gypsy Status

Before planning permission for a Gypsy caravan site can be obtained, the applicant must establish that he or she falls within the statutory definition of Gypsy, that is, has ‘Gypsy status’.

The leading case on Gypsy status before the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 came into force was R v South Hams District Council ex parte Gibb. The Court of Appeal considered whether the applicants were Gypsies for the purposes of the former duty to provide caravan sites in the CSA 1968, which defined Gypsies as ‘persons of a nomadic habit of life, whatever their race or origin.’ The Court of Appeal found the following matters were relevant in deciding whether the applicants in question were statutory Gypsies:

• a tradition of travelling
  
• travelling in a group
  
• travelling with an economic purpose.
  

The Court of Appeal decided that the definition of ‘Gypsy’ required a recognisable connection between the wandering or travelling and the way in which the persons concerned make or seek their livelihood. Persons, or individuals, who move from place to place merely as the fancy may take them and without any connection between the movement and their means of livelihood fall outside the statutory definition of ‘Gypsy’.

In the years that followed this judgment local planning authorities regularly argued that Gypsies and Travellers seeking planning permission should not be accorded Gypsy status and should not therefore be entitled to planning permission for a Gypsy site.

The issue occupied a lot of court time and in one line of controversial cases the courts considered whether an individual could lose Gypsy status, where ill health or old age has led a Gypsy or Traveller to cease travelling. However, the matter has now been settled, because paragraph 15 of Circular 1/06 now provides that:

‘For the purposes of this Circular “gypsies and travellers” means
Persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin, including such persons who on grounds only of their own or their family’s or dependants’ educational or health needs or old age have ceased to travel temporarily or permanently, but excluding members of an organised group of travelling show people or circus people travelling together as such.’

So if you were a Gypsy or Traveller, and enjoyed a nomadic lifestyle, but are now no longer travelling because of your own or your family’s ill health, or because of educational needs, you will still be considered a Gypsy or Traveller for planning purposes, even if there is no prospect that you will resume your nomadic life.