SIR: After reading various letters and comments regarding the on-going gypsy problem, I wonder if the following might be a solution?

As we know, the gypsy way of life is that of total mobility, so perhaps the answer is to restrict (or at least threaten to restrict) illegal trespassers by:

Requesting they move immediately, as the council/land owner is about to erect permanent fencing of the area.

Erect a 'non-confrontation' barrier by the vertical driving in of, say, old railway line sections or RSJ girders above five feet apart. This would allow unimpaired pedestrian access, but have the effect of restricting the entrance/exit of any vehicles, caravans etc. on or off the site.

As I remarked earlier, the denial of mobility, so fundamental to the gypsy way of life, would, I think soon sink in, and after one or two demonstrations of this nature, word would soon get around the travelling community of the new situation at Bolton!

If this problem is a desperate as your various correspondents write, perhaps the reversal of traditional methods of denial to that of restriction may be the answer!

Just think about it!

Mr Geoff Hardman

Devonshire Road, Heaton

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