TWO Newport travellers are calling on residents fighting plans to create designated Gipsy sites in Newport to give them a chance to prove they are not all bad.

Brothers Bobby and Tom Tom Hendry say they are upset by “racist” comments left on an online petition branding travellers and Gipsies as “thieving scum”, and are asking people not to judge them before they get to know them.

Whilst they acknowledge some travellers, who have previously left Newport council with hefty cleaning bills after setting up illegal encampments, do not help the situation, they are adamant they are not all the same.

Bobby, 21, said: “You are tarring a very large community with a very small brush. If a black person committed a crime would you say all black people are criminals? You wouldn’t, would you?”

The pair, who live in a house rather than a caravan, are also keen to dispel many of the myths surrounding people in their community, including many misconceptions that they do not pay rent, council tax, utility bills and national insurance.

Tom Tom, 23, who works as a Gipsy and traveller liaison officer for the South East Wales Racial Equality Council, said people in their community would welcome the chance to discuss the plans with those who have concerns, but so far they have been met with nothing but opposition.

He said the media’s often “exaggerated” portrayal of travellers and gipsies in television programmes like My Big Fat Gipsy Wedding, did not help their cause and merely added to the negative treatment they receive.

Bobby added that despite many people’s beliefs travellers are not against integrating in other communities, but they are often not given the chance because of people’s preconceived perceptions of them.

He said: “You can say travellers don’t want to be part of it, but if you don’t give people a chance there’s no choice in the matter.”

Tom Tom said designated sites in Newport, such as those proposed in Nash, Marshfield and Bettws, would help combat the problem of illegal encampments and give travellers and Gipsies a safe place to live.

He said that while many chose to the live a life on the road, it is not always ideal because unauthorised sites have no access to electricity, fresh water, and refuse collections, which is often the reason some sites need to be cleaned afterwards.

GIPSIES and travellers are defined two separate ethnic groups, and theirs is not a lifestyle choice like that of groups known as new travellers or new age travellers.

There are currently between 300 and 400 living in Newport, but the number varies throughout the year. Of these around half live in houses.

Traditionally they would have moved around the country following seasonal work, but as much of this has either dried up or is done by cheaper labour many have abandoned this lifestyle, preferring to stay in one place.

The brothers say it also becoming increasingly hard for them to find safe and legal stopping places, such as common land, much of which has been now been developed.

As well as these factors many travellers now choose to live in houses because they are unable to get a job, register with a doctor, send their children to school or get a bank account without a permanent address.

Those who do live on permanent sites pay rent on their plots, council tax and any bills typically paid by householders.