Assembly Member criticises decision to prosecute 'gypsy site' petitioner

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 26th Sep 2007

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has criticised the decision by the Commission for Racial Equality to take legal action under the Race Relations Act against a local resident who collected 953 signatures on a petition against a possible official travellers' site near his home.

In a press statement yesterday the CRE confirmed that they are considering prosecuting Carl Lewis, who organised the petition,under Section 31 of the Race Relations Act, which makes it lawful to bring pressure on someone to act in a discriminatory way. They have argued Mr. Lewis' actions are preventing people from 'understanding how proper solutions to the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers are to the benefit of all and can build positive relations between the settled and travelling members of local communities'.

Commenting on the decision, Mr. Black said:

"As far as I am aware there are no plans to put a second travellers' site in this area. There is already one official encampment, which has wide acceptance in the local community, but an illegal occupation of a Council car park is causing a number of problems for residents. The Council is taking legal action to evict a number of individuals from this site and is currently discussing how it will meet its statutory obligations to them. This intervention by the CRE in my view is a perverse and unwelcome intrusion on this process.

"Whatever one's views on this matter, the prosecution of local residents who are using legitimate and democratic means to bring their concerns to the attention of the local Council, will set a dangerous and unwelcome precedent. If for example the Council were to proceed with an official site and lodged a planning application would the CRE determine that anybody who objected to it, and any Councillor who spoke against it, were acting in breach of the Race Relations Act?

"There are fundamental freedom of speech issues here that are not helped by the CRE's own inconsistency. They are not for example prosecuting the Labour Party, who put out a leaflet in the by-election calling on people to vote for them so as to get rid of the gypsy site. Nor are they prosecuting the BNP who also put out dubious literature during the recent by-election."

"What this prosecution will do is to harden attitudes within the local community when a more conciliatory approach might have got better results. If local politicians are playing politics with this issue then so are the CRE. We need solutions not recriminations."