A GROUP of gipsies say their children cannot get access to a doctor or a place in a school because Newport council will not rent them a piece of land they can use as a permanent home.

The travellers, who controversially camped on the Tredegar House site last week, just a few weeks before the start of the Eisteddfod, say they are being denied basic human rights because they are not being provided with a permanent site.

Barney McDonnagh, 48, came to the UK from Ireland in the 1970s and has been living in South Wales for the past 12 years working as a market trader. He said his family have been travellers for hundreds of years.

Speaking from their current camp on a plot of land near Church Crescent in Coedkernew, Mr McDonnagh said: "We have about 30 children on our camp. They are British citizens but cannot get into a school. We have no address so we cannot get access to a GP. People talk about travellers' rights but we have no rights. We are the people getting harassed, getting moved on from place to place."

Mr McDonnagh said the group are willing to pay rent to the council for a plot of land with a tap with running water, skips for their rubbish and toilets. And he denied that their group were responsible for the damage to the LG site.

"That is not down to us. People have been fly tipping on that land for a long time. Businesses from Newport and Cardiff as well as other travellers from outside the area have used it as a dump. We put all our rubbish in bags and take it down the tip.

"There are always some bad apples wherever you go, but once one traveller does something wrong we all have to suffer - we all get treated the same and that is wrong."

A Newport council spokeswoman said they had not received a formal application from the travellers for a site.

"No application has been made to the council on this matter. If the travellers make an application then it will go through the council planning procedures."