At Cambridge City Council responsibility for Gypsy and Traveller issues falls within Housing Services which works with a number of services in other departments to formulate and deliver Council policy in this area.
The purpose of the information on these webpages is to provide an overview of Council policy and national legislation and provide advice and useful contacts to all sectors of the community in Cambridge.
Travelling in Cambridge Guidance:
Introduction
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are Cambridgeshire’s largest ethnic minority and many families have an ancestry in this region and in this City that goes back generations.
The use of the term Traveller to denote the ethnic group does not have the same definition as the dictionary definition of ‘a person who travels’ or ‘someone who changes location’.
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are groups of people with similar lifestyles but different cultures that belong to recognised ethnic groups under the Race Relations Act (1976 and 2000).
They are recognised ethnic groups due to them each possessing a shared culture, language, belief, history and geographical origin. People in these groups do not lose their ethnic heritage if they take settled housing.
In the following information these people will be referred to as Gypsies and Travellers.