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With its concentration of fruit and vegetable farms Kent has historically had a high population of gypsies and travellers because these farms needed a large mobile workforce. (BBC Kent Romany Roots. The History of Gypsy Travellers in Britain). This provided an ideal way for gypsies and travellers to make a living. The annual round of farm work began in late spring with hop training and throughout the summer and autumn gypsies moved from farm to farm as each crop needed harvesting.

In the days of horse drawn caravans the extended family would travel and work together following a seasonal pattern of work on the county's farms. In winter they would pull on to one of the traditional stopping places on the edges of towns. In the years after the Second World War much of the traditional farm work gradually disappeared due to increasing mechanisation and the use of chemicals in farming. Increasing legislation also made stopping places harder to find. In modern times gypsies are having to adapt an ancient culture which was developed and sustained through travelling into a more sedentary existence.

By the mid 1960s all hops were picked by machines and herbicides had dispensed with the need for hand weeding. Gradually the fruit farms that still needed extra labour at harvest time were beginning to employ students from abroad rather than gypsies and other local people. During this period gypsies continued to resort to their traditional over wintering sites on the edges of major urban settlements where some casual employment could be gained. As the farm work dried up, so did the impetus to keep travelling and some of the winter stopovers gradually became permanent sites and other gypsy families moved into houses. Many travellers, who were themselves born on the roadside in bender tents or alongside horse-drawn wagons, following an ancient pattern of existence, are now watching their children and grandchildren growing up in radically different circumstances. Forced into adapting to a different modern day way of life, gypsies remain proud of their cultural inheritance and still seek to express it in the way they live.

The Government has an objective to ensure that everyone, including members of the gypsy and travelling communities has the opportunity of living in a decent home. However, it is believed that Gypsies and Travellers currently experience the worst health and education status of any disadvantaged group in England. Government circular 01/2006 lists a number of intentions among which is to improve healthcare and education available to this group. Another is to reduce the number of unauthorised encampments by significantly increasing the number of gypsy and traveller sites. In making this provision for gypsies and travellers, the intention is to protect and facilitate their traditional way of life. A similar Government circular (04/2007) devoted to Travelling Showpeople seeks to do the same for the people who operate travelling circuses and fairgrounds.

This consultation has now closed.