Home > yourrights > rights of gypsies and travellers/the right to healthcare > the right to healthcare
> Environmental Health
Environmental Health
Another area of concern to Gypsies and Travellers and healthcare practitioners alike is the link between the poor living environment and poor health of many Gypsies Travellers.
Whilst there is no statutory duty on local authorities to enable the provision of water to unauthorised encampments, Circular 18/94 advises local authorities to consider tolerating the presence of Gypsies and Travellers on temporary or unofficial sites and to examine ways of minimising the level of nuisance on such sites. Local authorities should be encouraged to comply with the advice in Circular 18/94 by providing basic services such as toilets, a refuse skip and a supply of drinking water.
Alternatively, it may be possible to persuade a local authority to provide water under the Children Act 1989 in circumstances where there are children ‘in need’ living on the site, that is, children who are unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by a local authority, or their health is likely to be significantly impaired or further impaired without the provision of such services.
Whilst there is no statutory duty on local authorities to enable the provision of water to unauthorised encampments, Circular 18/94 advises local authorities to consider tolerating the presence of Gypsies and Travellers on temporary or unofficial sites and to examine ways of minimising the level of nuisance on such sites. Local authorities should be encouraged to comply with the advice in Circular 18/94 by providing basic services such as toilets, a refuse skip and a supply of drinking water.
Alternatively, it may be possible to persuade a local authority to provide water under the Children Act 1989 in circumstances where there are children ‘in need’ living on the site, that is, children who are unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by a local authority, or their health is likely to be significantly impaired or further impaired without the provision of such services.
