It’s been a while
As the title says, it’s been a while. A while since I last posted on my blog here and also a while since I last dived.
I have not do as much diving in 2006 as I would have liked. Infact since the middle of September when we came back from Tenerife, I have only done 4 dives and they were in the Red Sea at Sharm.
I have been hard at work with my web site Tenerife Times, it’s really starting to take off now with visitor numbers increassing every month, so much so that we should see our stats hit 10,000 visitors this month. At the same time we had to fend off an attack of the hackers in December. On Christmas Eve, my dad rang me to tell me that the site had been hacked for the 2nd time that week! What a great Christmas present that was!
After 5 more attempts I finally found the way in that theywere using and managed to patch it. Cheers guys!
In November my wife and I had a great weeks holiday in Sharm, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency in the club lounge. It was fantastic. The diving was everything I thought it would be and we are looking forward to returning some time soon.
Cheers
Hopper
Pikey Watch - the final few days
Life was strange with the ‘travellers’, at every turn we had to watch what we were doing. Are the windows shut, the doors bolted, what are they up to, will they be doing anything to harm us? It was a week of turmoil and nerves.
On Wednesday we came home to see a stake hammered into the ground with a notice pinned to it and another on a lamppost. I had previously spoken to Gypsy Liaison Office who had told me that they were going to court on Friday morning to try and get a warrant to remove them from the field.
This was not, I was told, a forgone conclusion. There are many ‘things’ that could go wrong on the day. The council had to prove that they had looked after the welfare of the travellers, shown concern for the education and health of the children and basically gone down all the possible avenues.
On Thursday evening whilst sat surfing the net I heard more than the usual noise coming from the field. I looked out of the window and saw that 3 of the Caravans had been hitched to the vehicles and looked set to be going in the morning.
Thirty minutes later whilst washing up I noticed two transits leave the field with caravans in tow. Was this the beginning of the end?
I looked at the rest of the vans out of another window and all but one of the caravans were hitched. They were going before any warrant could be served.
Within twenty minutes one of the original transits returned (they can’t have moved far) to hook up the remaining last unit. A further thirty minutes later and they were all gone.
So what have we learn’t and what are we left with?
We have learn’t that as the travellers left before any injunction could be either gained or served the council are now back at square 1, the Gypsies are legally entitled to return to the site at any time for the whole process to start all over again.
The field is now littered with debris, scrap building and tarmacing materials, bin bags, moldy used pans and dishes, broken beer bottles, cans and rubbish. There is a wood at the back of the field that I have been told is littered with human excrement and used toilet roll.
On Friday morning we contacted the council about the cleansing of the field and woods. We were told that as the travellers were able to return at anytime the cleanup operation had been put on hold until the field could be secured in some form.
The weekend came and went, as did Monday! Tuesday morning saw the arrival of two workmen who set about erecting a low standing fence. As of today they are halfway through this measure.
The cost of this, coupled with the cost of the still to be started clean-up and legal costs must run into the 1000’s possibly over 10 - who knows.
Last Saturday, there was a front page article in the local paper where the leader of the travellers confidently proclaimed that unless the council provided them with somewhere to stay they would carry on ’squatting’ on council land. He said it was the council’s duty to look after their interests.
I feel aggrieved, I pay my taxes, business rates and council tax yet I cannot even put a bin bag on top of my wheelie bin for the refuse men to remove, yet, ‘our friends’ are able to destroy a field, cause untold expense to the council and inconvenience most of the local residents all in the name of their ‘human rights.’ What about my rights, when are they going to be considered?
Pikey Watch Days 3 & 4
Day 3 of Pikey Watch:
So nothing out of the ordinary. Quad girl it seems had run out of petrol. I went to work with a barked flea in my ear courtesy of the roaming collection of mungeral dogs. All morning I was anxious, I had to come home at lunch time again and make sure my property was still intact. It was but I had this feeling in side, I was sickened, the weekend was approaching and there I was, instead of relishing the weekend I was dreading it.
A neighbour reported kids running down their path, vaulting the fence and running amok in the allotments behind. When I got back from work, there was a letter on my doorstep from the Local Labour Group of Councilors (I have enclosed it below)
Dear Fellow Residents
We thought it would be useful to let you know the actions we have taken in dealing with the travellers who are currently encamped on Jim Lane Rec.
Wednesday lunchtime we recieved numerous calls informing us of events. We reported our concerns to the relevant departments with the Council, who set the regulatory legal wheels in motion immediately. Unfortunately, this legal process has to be followed, and this, takes time, and we have to wait the Courts approval to the Council’s application for possession of the land.
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention, and rest assored we are monitoring the situation and doing all we can,
We went to bed on Friday night, it was relatively quite all night.
Day 4 of Pikey Watch:
Saturday dawned, there was a bin bag of rubbish in the middle of the field, Mrs H was impressed. Now we’re not sure it was the locals or the travelers, either way it was an encouraging site.
I work Saturdays and my wife was left at home on her own, she wasn’t too happy about this but it had to happen. The day came and went, nothing out of the ordinary, infact we commented as to how ‘easy’ it was.
We went out for our evening meal, ZamZam’s in Elland (Fantastic), when we came back there was an empty Budweiser box in the middle of the field and empty bottles scattered around the field. We considered going out to the local bar but decided against it. This is the thing about the situation that I feel so frustrated about, their arrival has altered the way we live our lives. We have deliberately altered our movements because of them. We stayed at home and had a drink in the house, just to be on the safe side.
Saturday was a quite night in ALL respects.