Councillor blasts £90 course on ‘engaging with gipsies’

The course, which has been slammed by a senior councillor, has been revealed at the same time as travellers have recently moved onto a car park at a sports centre in South Leeds.

The training course will cost £75 plus VAT per person and it is understood the bill will be picked up by Leeds City Council.

The Leeds Gipsy and Traveller Exchange (Gate) is running the course entitled: ‘How to engage with Gipsies and Travellers as part of your work.’

It includes talks under various headings including: “health and well-being crisis in gipsy and traveller communities”, “closing the understanding gap”, “dealing with young gipsies and travellers” and an interactive “visioning” session.

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said last night: “We have a number of our staff that work closely with the gipsy and traveller community and we have a duty to ensure our staff are properly trained for working directly with various communities.

“Therefore, if we felt extra training would benefit this working relationship we would consider providing staff with training to reflect this,” the spokeswoman added

Interest has been canvassed across a number of council departments for the course to be held in Leeds on November 2.

Coun Les Carter (Cons, Adel & Wharfedale) yesterday criticised the spending of public cash on the session.

He said: “In these times of hardship this money could be better spent.

“To pay £90 per person for the course is really silly.

“It’s a waste of money and the council hasn’t got much money to spare.

“Why a course for gipsies and travellers and not people like the elderly or children?”, he added.

The session includes a speech from Helen Jones, chief executive at Leeds Gate, who said: “The training is a practitioner event to enable providers across health, education, adult care, children’s services, fire and rescue to ensure that the services they offer are efficient, inclusive and make best use of available resources.

“Across all service users and equalities fields, this type of training is widely used as part of ongoing professional development. The sessions are delivered by practitioners in their specialist field who have developed innovative and cost effective ways to provide their services to gipsies and travellers alongside all other service groups.”

The agenda for the course, published on-line, talks of misunderstanding between the travelling and settled communities, which it says lead to mistrust and “overt racial prejudice towards gipsies and travellers.”