1960: Gypsy sites closed. 1970: council sites required

Major political and legal constraints are set by the larger society on the Travellers' use of land for residence, work and travel. Evidence of the influence of the state and its representatives need not be confined to the national level, it can be found also at the local and micro level. For this chapter, information has been drawn from both national and local government reports, documents and newspapers, and discussions and interviews with national and local officials. The majority of examples of local authorities are from the south-east of England, but generalisations are corroborated by evidence from elsewhere in England. Documentary evidence has been taken both beyond and from the main areas of my fieldwork. Exact references to sources have been excluded in order to preserve the anonymity both of the local authorities and of the Travellers. A composite picture emerges. Details of some of the negotiations and activities leading to legislation in 1968, and case studies of several local authorities in the 1970s, are to be found elsewhere (Okely 1972, Adams et al. 1975: chs. 1 and 8 and Sibley 1981:93-100 and ch. 10). This account points only to some aspects, and more specifically to those which appear to have had the most immediate implications for the Gypsies' travelling patterns, especially during the period of fieldwork for this study from 1970 to 1979.