The High Court has ruled councils must support disabled children in travelling families, even when they move to other parts of Britain.In a decision welcomed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the court ruled Worcestershire Council must support a three-year-old boy even when he is in another part of the country.
The boy, who has Down’s syndrome as well as other complex medical conditions, is part of a travelling Roma Gypsy family.

The family travels across England working at fairs during the summer, but is based in Malvern, Worcestershire, in the winter.

The council had declined to fund nursery services for the boy, known as Child J, while the family were travelling.

But Justice Edward Holman said there were ‘powerful submissions’ that it was unrealistic for Child J to access services from scratch every time the family moved to a different local authority area.

The judge said: ‘Everyone loves a funfair. They are part of the tapestry of our national life. But there would be no funfairs without the travelling families who own the rides and amusements, erect them, man them, and then take them onto the next pitch.

‘It must be a hard life and a hard working one, but it is a good life and an honourable one, which brings fun and joy to many people.’

He ruled that Worcestershire Council was able to exercise its power outside of its area, and should continue funding any provision it had put in place for the child.

Wendy Hewitt, legal director at the EHRC, said: ‘This important ruling means that this little boy, and others in similar situations, can now continue their traditional way of life without fearing the loss of essential services to meet their health and educational needs.’

Janna Eliot is a writer based in London of Russian, Armenian and Roma heritage. Her collection of short stories is not the traditional Gypsy, Roma and Traveller tales but contemporary accounts of based, one suspects, on actual events.

The stories range from that of Eva, a survivor of the concentration camps, who meets her sister from whom she has been separated for sixty five years,  Gabi, a Romanian Roma girl living with her family in squalid conditions in Italy, Peri from London who goes to the Great Amazing Romany Summer School in Serbia, Joey and his brother Mark, who enter a singing competition at Barnet Horse Fair, Zena from Russia who begs at the bus station and takes comfort by talking to a statue of the poet Pushkin, who was dark like a Gypsy, to young Irish Traveller girl Breed living on Dale Farm refusing to go to school for fear of being taken into care. 

Interestingly, for ACERT members, Lord Averbury makes an appearance in this story opening of the community centre on the site. Breed was expecting him, being a lord, to have ‘red robes and long white wigs’ but she says, “He was a grand talker though, and a supporter of the Travellers.”

Janna portrays her characters with sensitivity to their marginal position in society and her understanding and empathy with their culture and history. Some of the stories are harrowing, but at the same time she brings out the pride and resilience inherent in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller peoples. Janna has a good ear for language and her characters come alive through the dialogue. A  Romani/English glossary is provided following each story.

This collection of short stories gives an insight into Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities across the UK and Europe today and is highly recommended.

Review by Tim Everson

The Gypsy Piano Tuner – softback 104 pages

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Jake Bowers puts a strong case for judging this case on the facts, not on prejudice. The Roma blogger Pipopotamus and the novelist Louise Doughty have also made sensible contributions to the debate.