Residents living at the newly refurbished £5.45 million Clinterty Travelling Persons Site said they are happy with the new facilities.
The site at Clinterty, located in the north of Aberdeen, contains 21 amenity blocks for Travellers, which comes fitted with a bathroom, kitchen and storage facilities, while a new play park has also been built.
The facilities, which were funded by Aberdeen City Council, along with £3.1 million of support from the Scottish Government’s Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund, were officially opened on Tuesday.
One permanent resident of the site – a Scottish Traveller who is aged 23 and did not want to be named – welcomed the improvements.
Originally from Fife, the mother to a one and three-year-old child expressed her delight at the upgrades: “They weren’t very great before – stuff was dirty.”
Clinterty travellers say community is quiet and calm
Each of the buildings have enhanced insulation alongside infrared heating systems and solar panels, and the resident – who has lived at the site for six years – says it is “more like a little house inside” and is “more family friendly”.
“They’ve really upgraded it inside, it’s a lot more modern now than it was before and is a lot better,” she added.
A “very quiet and very calm” community, the mum-of-two says that TV programmes like Big Fat Gypsy Weddings are not representative of Gypsy/Traveller communities and said their lifestyle is “nothing like this”.
Settled at the Clinterty site, she said her three-year-old goes to a “very good” nearby nursery that “loves travellers”.
Another permanent resident of Clinterty Park is Mrs Stewart, who has lived at the site all of her life.
She lives there with her daughter, while her mum resides down the street.
Travellers stayed in council flat during renovations
During the renovations, Mrs Stewart and her daughter were moved to a council flat for 19 months and she describes this situation as being “horrible”.
Discussing the upgrades with The P&J, she said: “It’s a lot better than what it was.”
She added: “The site was due an update, it was really rundown. Beforehand, my bath didn’t even work for about a year and a half. I was lucky I had my own shower in my static.
“All my sockets broke and all the power points. I couldn’t even get my washing machine on half the time and we had a lot of rats.”
Mrs Stewart the resident said the previous facility ran “without any maintenance”.
“I think that’s why it went downhill, it never got the standard upkeep, not even paved or nothing like that. When you reported something to get fixed, no one ever came out,” she told The P&J.
‘Definitely’ build more sites like Clinterty
However, Mrs Stewart said there is a new warden and residents have been told to report any issues straight away.
The Scottish Traveller also encouraged Aberdeen City Council to build more Gypsy/Traveller sites across the area, with a waiting list for those want to apply for a pitch at Clinterty.
“There’s 21 plots on this site, you would think that’s a lot of plots, but how many Scottish Travellers are there and how many live in Aberdeen?
“They’re saying that should be enough for them and there should be no excuse for them not staying here. I’m like, ‘there’s more than 21 Travellers’.”
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