THE last official site in Glasgow for travelling families is to be closed...

By Gerry Braiden

THE last official site in Glasgow for travelling families is to be closed.

The city council, which will save around £30,000 per yearby doing so, is also unlikely to provide any further permanent traveller sites.

It is more than two years since the site in Rodney Street, Maryhill, was last used and five since a series of attacks led to some within the travelling community claiming it was cursed'.

Previously, the majority of the 30 pitches at the £50-per-week site were well used after it opened in 1989.

But a series of incidents over a six-month period involving gypsy/travellers' families sparked a dramatic drop in use.

Despite the installation of a closed-circuit television system and investment from the then Scottish Executive, "occupancy levels have been affected by family association and fear of intimidation" to such an extent it has been unoccupied since spring 2007.

In 2003 Peter McPhee, 16, was shot in the legs by a masked gunman who fired from a car before speeding off.

Another resident is understood to have died during a family's time on the site, leading to the relatives moving to another area.

According to some within the community, many travellers now believe the site to be cursed.

The closure is expected to be agreed by Glasgow City Council tomorrow and comes two years after the council said it wanted to "positively attract" gypsies and travellers to swell dwindling numbers in the city.

However, a report on the closure also notes the fall-off in demand may reflect deep-rooted changes within the travelling community as a whole.

Recent research from Northern Ireland highlighted that more and more people prefer settled accommodation and that only a minority continue to travel and mainly during summer months.

The council is also unlikely to provide any further permanent traveller sites.

Its report states: "Our discussions have highlighted little or no concrete evidence of demand across the area."

It adds the council has also abandoned proposals to apply for further Government funding to convert two of the units to a community facility as "demand is non-existent and likely to remain so", while "further investment also risked being vandalised given the site's location".

In 2007 11 councils in west Scotland and the then housing regulator Communities Scotland commissioned a research project.

It found family feuds within the travelling population are common and are more likely to cause people to move on from their accommodation than harassment from local people.

The report also found most Scottish and Irish travellers prefer plumbed-in static vans, while the Romany population now prefer to buy or rent a quality tourer.

West Dunbartonshire and South Lanarkshire emerged as the only two councils where strong evidence of demand for sites existed and were also the areas with the largest travelling communities.

Glasgow is, however, home to a large community of travelling show people'.