Consultation project awarded for Gypsy and Traveller sites
8 December 2006
TK Associates has won a contract for a consultation programme to help a coalition of local bodies to identify suitable Gypsy & Traveller sites.
The project involves consulting residents, businesses, politicians, stakeholders, Travellers and support groups on options for new transit Traveller sites in Sussex. The team will be identifying views about the sites and about the wider, contentious issue of the coexistence of Travellers and mainstream communities.
The project’s objective is also to increase understanding amongst the public and local politicians of the history and lifestyles of Travellers and the problems they face.
TK Associates is running the exercise on behalf of East Sussex County Council, Hastings Borough Council and Sussex Police. From a long-list of potential locations for a Traveller site, a short-list of three has been drawn up for detailed evaluation.
The TK Associates team will be holding 12 consultation workshops, several site visits, numerous one-on-one discussions and a public Open Day. It will be collating views by questionnaire, monitoring incoming correspondence and producing detailed information online as well as in the form of leaflets distributed to affected homes and businesses. It will be handling media relations around the exercise. Overall, it expects to consult over 500 people in person with hundreds of additional views expected in writing.
Given the emotive nature of the subject, the team is also preparing for a considerable level of crisis communications work.
TK Associates will report its findings to the council cabinets early next spring.
