News & events

The 2019 London Gypsies and Travellers’ Annual Report is now available for download. The report details LGT’s work influencing policy, protecting the Gypsy and Traveller way of life, mapping the community’s history, supporting families and offering young people opportunities. In her introduction, LGT Chair Claire Cooper points to the divisions currently apparent in society. “It’s …

London Gypsies and Travellers has been awarded a charity quality mark after an external assessment by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). The assessment concluded that LGT “has a clear planning structure, strong governance and robust values which they put into practice by ensuring that users are at the heart of everything they do”. …

Eleven organisations supporting Gypsies and Travellers, including LGT, have urged Home Secretary Priti Patel to withdraw the current consultation on criminalising trespass and strengthening police powers to evict. A letter to the Home Office  sent last week by the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups challenges the consultation because it fails to comply with the …

A landmark Court of Appeal judgment released today has criticised the use of wide injunctions which target Gypsy and Traveller encampments. The Court of Appeal handed down a very significant judgment, dismissing an appeal by Bromley Council against the High Court’s decision to refuse the Council’s application for an injunction against “persons unknown” stopping on public …

LGT is calling on the Greater London Authority to take the lead in adopting non-confrontational, negotiated responses to Gypsy and Traveller roadside camps. It wants a new “negotiated stopping” approach on all GLA land, and for the GLA to support London boroughs in adopting negotiated stopping approaches. The call comes as a key recommendation in …

A vital court hearing on 3rd and 4th December will examine whether local councils can go ahead with injunctions outlawing Gypsies and Travellers from stopping on open land – and criminalising a centuries-old way of life. LGT, which has mounted a legal challenge against these orders, believes the injunctions break the Equality Act and discriminate …

A small piece of land in Hackney was designated as a Travellers’ site five years ago. But despite promises from the Mayor of London, Hackney Council and London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), it’s still waiting for people to move in. Now, the Hackney Travellers Action Group has stepped in and is asking the Mayor of …

London Gypsies and Travellers is trying to raise £8000 to help fund its legal challenge to local councils who have won injunction orders banning Gypsies and Travellers from stopping on open spaces – effectively criminalising a way of life. We believe these injunctions break the Equality Act and discriminate against Gypsies and Travellers. We are …

A new exhibition which showcases the lives and experiences of London’s oldest cultural minority, Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, will open on the 19 November at the Information Hub in Thamesmead. London Gypsies and Travellers is working in partnership with Peabody, London’s oldest housing association, to bring the exhibition to Thamesmead. The exhibition was first …

New government proposals giving police powers to arrest and seize the property of people on unauthorised caravan sites threaten to criminalise an ancient way of life, according to London Gypsies and Travellers. This week Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that she was launching a consultation on new proposals which will make “trespassing while setting up …