My there are a lot of um isn't there?

Word soon get's round if they find a good patch.......supermarket, hotel, pub and sports centre on site, doesn't come much better.

Just had a swim at the sports centre it looks like a thompsons family resort with all the blow ups and screaming kids

S'allright once the sign 'Home of Leigh Centurions' goes up that'll fricky em all off.

I pay all my own taxes and have never claimed a penny in my life, if any our nomadic friends wanted to stay at mine i would have no problems with that whatsoever. Hope they are still here for the new season and the club makes them aware of Leigh Rugby, might add an extra 100 to our crowd if we're lucky.

I am not familiar with the comings and goings of Travellers but if they have kids with them how are those kids educated ? Serious question anyone know ?

like you and I, they have the right to be home schooled.

Whilst I appreciate that Jimmy how would a child's educational progress be monitored if their caravans were moving to another location quite frequently.`

Another few serious questions' how do Travellers pay for their clothes' food and petrol ? Oh and road tax ?

Do I have the right not to pay taxes?? And sheete wherever I want?

I think theres a massive common misconception that Nomadic gypsies don't pay taxes, the legal site 100 metres from mine in Pennington has about 15 white vans which are out everyday doing small jobs around the area, they filled in the huge pot holes down the side of one of our rugby pitches at Leigh RUFC last year for free, I spoke to and thanked them for doing it at the time, they pay their taxes through PAYE, not forgetting paying road tax, VAT on all their materials, petrol etc.

Do whatever makes you happy.

I doubt that my idea of them going out doing small jobs would tally with yours.

I dont follow....?

Really?

Really.

If you believe that is how the travelling ones normally work then fair do's, my experience is one of emptying diesel from vans overnight and leaving a right sheete tip behind them

gyp0's are a horrible breed of creatures who bring nothing but trouble what do they give back to society seriously.........nothing! As a kid I've been attacked by them on matter lane site, had my car vanalised them when working in strettford & the same has happened with my brothers car too in wiggin recently. They are not nice people with no common decency towards people & the enviroment they invade I'd be glad to see the back of them but unfortunately they're here to stay.

I think you'll find people like that wherever you go, I've been attacked upleigh, had my van broken into and the mirror kicked off my car in the last few years, non of the people responsible were Gypsies, they were all born and bred in Leigh, so does that make you and me a 'horrible breed of creatures'?

You can't tar everybody with the same brush, I knew it wouldn't be long before the casual racism kicked in.

Has anybody actually spoken to any of them?

Gypsies are not a race, they are groups of rootless, itinerant opportunists who generally create problems wherever they go.

I suppose that all depends on your definition of 'race', however, I do believe that your posts are based merely on the reputation that's been portrayed recently in the media, rather than by fact.

I think we should embrace our new friends, wish them well and get to know them, if they have no knowlege of rugby league I certainly wouldn't begrudge them receiving some form of dispensation from our BOM and gaining entrance to a few games with a price reduction on admission.

Does anybody know if they've brought any horses or ponies with them? Wouldn't mind taking my niece up at the weekend to go and see them if they have.

I have had ' contact ' with them several times, I have witnessed their mating rituals ( men dragging their wives/girlfriends across a pub floor by their hair ) and have several times been verbally threatened by them for nothing more than pointing out that my van was not for sale , just to then be told '" We'll just take it anyway "

I have seen 1 st hand the results of their ' work ' both on peoples drives and roofline, they have no scruples whatsoever and are happy to prey on the old and vunerable

As for their disgusting habit of leaving rubbish including human and animal waste wherever they stay, I have also seen several cases of that

If you think they really do make an honest living you are welcome to invite them to do a job for you, best of luck

Steve do any of them play Poker ?The Centurion is only just down the road

Frank can teach them .

I suppose it all comes down to personal experiences with them, I've worked with them in previous lines of work and found them no trouble at all, regarding their 'mating rituals' I'm afraid 200 years of tradition isn't going to be broke anytime soon and there are FAR worse things going on in other cultures every minute of every day that we turn a blind eye to, and I've just been reading a Manchester Evening News article about three loansharks that targeted old people and vulnerable single mums with threats of violence etc, doesn't mean everybody in Manchester is like that.

Opinions are like a**eholes I suppose. Everyones got one.

I will invite a few down on Tuesday if I make it to the site at the weekend, seem to remember playing pool in the Ellesmere last year with a couple of them the last time they were down here.