Testun llawn:
I am horrified by the response of my village, Harbury, to the proposed Gypsy Traveller site along the Fosse Way. I object most strongly to the racist material that is on public display, prominent in local pubs and pushed through my and other letter boxes. I can not imagine any other ethnic, racial, religious or gender group being targeted in such a manner without police action, nor can I imagine how it must feel to be a member of the Gypsy Traveller community and have to live with such public displays of animosity.
In view of the vehemence of the campaign to marshal objections to the proposed site; including village meetings and support to submit complaints.; I suggest that a number of people who do not share this view might well feel too intimidated to say so, and therefore that the objections will not accurately reflect public feeling.
I also contend that public feeling is no basis on which to decide public policy. At the risk of resorting to the same emotional level as the protesters, if it were we would still have have public hangings.
You website suggests that Warwick District Council is only considering the sites because it is its statutory duty. I strongly suggest it is our moral duty to make decent provision for a group that has suffered appallingly through public policy over the past few decades, if not longer. Gypsy Traveller sites, both semi-permanent and seasonally used, that existed in the past have long since been destroyed or made uninhabitable and the possibility of friendly co-existence between communities made almost impossible by this sort of campaign; thus leading to a self-fulfilment of the prediction of problems.
My final point is to note that the campaign literature I have seen to date is all anonymous.
Assuming the sites chosen are acceptable to the community they are to serve and have been identified in collaboration with that community I strongly support their creation