Travellers must organise Stow Horse Fair themselves

9:25am Wednesday 2nd August 2006

THE travelling community has been told the ball is very much in its court as far as the effective management of the Stow Horse Fair is concerned.

Council bosses at Cotswold District Council believe they have done all that they can to ensure the biannual event runs smoothly.

Many residents feel negotiations with Andrew Lovell, owner of the Maugersbury Lane field where the fair is held, have got nowhere, but CDC chief executive Bob Austin told councillors this week it is the responsibility of the travelling community to regulate the event.

He said: "This council and other bodies have done as much as they can in supporting a better managed event - we will have to put the ball in the court of the travelling community and the owners of the field.

"Neither ourselves, the police or the county council can do anything about when the travellers arrive. The people who can partially control the duration and arrival and departure times are the travelling community themselves, aided and abetted with the owners of the field."

CDC has asked Mr Lowell not to open the field before the Monday of the Thursday fair and limit the whole event from Tuesday to Thursday by October 2007.

If this happens, it will consider allowing caravans to stay temporarily and put down permanent paths in the muddy field.

Last week around 70 people packed a public meeting in St Edward's Hall in Stow-on-the-Wold to attack the council's handling of the fair.

Residents said a record number of gypsies, caravans and stalls had been on site at the May fair and travellers had turned up six days before it began.

Many were also outraged that CDC had relaxed a High Court injunction, which bans gypsies camping overnight, in a trial run during last May and October's fairs.

Now the fair is contained in a field off Maugersbury Lane, but complaints about human fouling and littering, particularly in the town centre, are still high.

Cllr Timothy Royle (Con, Rissingtons) said: "I was simply horrified by the state of Stow - it was absolutely trashed.

"The shops were closed because was the point of keeping them open. It's a form of terrorism. What can we do to stop them the travelling community coming into the town and behaving in this way?

"The police have got to take steps to protect our towns from being assaulted in this way. Also, why can't the travelling community police themselves?"

Council leader Lynden Stowe also criticised the littering and pledged to fund a mobile unit to pick rubbish up at the next event.

Local businesswoman Vera Norwood, vice-president of the Gypsy Council, said: "It shouldn't go on too long but it is no good trying to limit it too much.

"People have to travel so far and they are not going to stay for just one or two days.

"I think Stow should embrace the Stow fair, not grumble about it."

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