Friday, July 07, 2006

niche habitat opportunists

brighton has had a problem with homelessness for some time, as do all towns around the world

there have been a number of settlements of new age travellers in buses and vans around the city's boundaries for years

i have the impression that new age travellers first multiplied at about the same time that the poll tax was introduced and when people in local and national government tacitly agreed to stop building enough council houses because it was thought that market forces would allow the problem to solve itself

so-called travellers frequently park their glossy fleets of expensive caravans and vehicles on the city's playing fields & brownfield development sites ... this week there is a huge encampment at patcham place by the london road

tents are harder to site because individuals are more vulnerable to harassment and vandalism, but a few have appeared on this little unwanted triangle of pebble beach next to the marina

it can't be much fun living in a tent

is this a symptom of this government's inability to deal fairly with the poor ?

perhaps being new labour isn't the same thing as being a socialist

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southern hawker ... r.i.p.

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firewood

someone has been stockpiling treetrunks on the quay at shoreham harbour next to the new gas fired power station

you can see only about half the length of the pile in this picture

perhaps they are expecting to run out of gas

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