IT MIGHT seem a contradiction in terms, that a Romany Gipsy, born to an itinerant life, should be seeking so eagerly the opportunity to settle, albeit in many cases only to give his children an education.

After which, he will probably take to the roads again, as the pull of the life-on-the-move, with all its traditions, is extremely strong.

As in all societies, there are many strata. The word I would prefer to use, is class, but this may be considered politically incorrect. The strata have little to do with the amount of Gipsy-blood an individual may have, but everything to do with life-style, success or otherwise he has managed to achieve by the time he has a growing family.

Romany Gipsies are family orientated. They do not shunt off their elderly parents into homes: a younger member of the family tows their trailer-caravan and cares for them.

Envy at what appears to be a romantic life of freedom, causes spiteful comments. When a Romany Gipsy is allowed to stop on his own land or to stop on a licensed trailer-park, he willingly pays the community charge. When he has no fixed address and no facilities, he cannot.

Gradually, over 10 to 20 years, the age-old traditional stopping places, as they are called, on commons, verges and unused rough-land, have been trenched or fenced off.

Once you could not drive a 100 miles without seeing the picturesque sight of a Romany Gipsy encampment on the roadside. Should you ever see one now, it will be a hippie or new age camp. Not, of course, making a living as they go, but relying upon social services or wealthy parents.

The sad fact is, while the stopping-places have decreased the Romanies have increased. The planners of council sites neglected to consider this fact.

Not only is it exceedingly unfair, but rather ignorant to lump all the UK's many and varied itinerants under the one label 'Gipsies'. There are hippies, drop-outs, new age travellers, itinerant field-workers, fairground fraternity, circus people, council site dwellers, homeless people in temporary housing, council house travellers, caravan park travellers and Romanies on trailer parks, the tramps are a rarity. In the Middle Ages a much larger population was constantly on the move.

The very last people to be consulted, the very last life-style to be considered was that of the Romany Gipsy, when council sites were planned. Their seven-foot high wire-mesh fences, banks of earth and a warden smack of concentration camps.

C NEWMAN,

Shropshire.