Following on from my earlier reports from the horse fair this was another of those unexpected comments which made the story and indeed the headline. In the run up to the 2018 Appleby New Fair (aka the Appleby horse fair) there were a lot of complaints from residents in the surrounding towns and villages about antisocial behaviour from visitors. Here is my report from a packed and heated meeting held in Kirkby Stephen…

A LEADER of the gypsy and traveller community has said he predicted the annual Appleby horse fair would become too big and get out of hand as far back as 20 years ago.

Billy Welch, who is from Darlington and often dubbed “King of the Gypsies”, was speaking at a packed and heated meeting held in the main hall of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School on Tuesday.

It was organised by the event’s Multi-Agency Strategic Co-ordinating Group (MASCG) and followed numerous problems and antisocial behaviour issues experienced by local residents during the run-up to the horse fair earlier this month.

Problems in Kirkby Stephen arose following the cancellation of a traditional sale of horses and ponies in the town which was replaced by unofficial horse trading in crowded streets ahead of the fair.

An estimated 250 people turned up on Tuesday to raise their concerns.

Mr Welch said “genuine gypsy and traveller people” had been listening to what they had to say.

He added: “My family have been coming here for centuries. I recognise you’ve had problems — we can’t afford to become complacent.”

Mr Welch said there had been a “massive influx of people” into the area and residents were overwhelmed by the numbers.

He said genuine gypsies also had concerns. “We do believe that this fair is getting too big, we do believe it’s getting out of hand. It’s attracting the wrong type of people. For 20 years we’ve been predicting this,” he said.

Mr Welch said too many fields were being granted licences as camp sites during the fair and there were more people from the “settled community” attending the event who did not understand his community’s “unwritten laws”.

He said: “I am worried, and my people are worried, that this will happen again — we don’t want it to happen again. It’s not fair on the gypsies and travellers and it is not fair on the town. Put a cap on it to stop it getting bigger.”

County councillor Phil Dew (Con, Kirkby Stephen), who chaired the meeting, said feelings in the town had been “running high”, and Matthew Neal, Eden Council’s deputy chief executive and MASCG chairman, said there had been a demand for a meeting in Kirkby Stephen.

Joan Johnstone, chairman of Kirkby Stephen Town Council, said problems arose during the influx because people were drinking and roads were blocked with horses and traps. She added: “It just did feel like a Wild West town.”

She said it felt like Kirkby Stephen had been taken over. “It’s causing a lot of unrest and you need to do something about it,” she said.

Superintendent Mark Pannone, from Cumbria police, said they had received 15 calls about the situation in Kirkby Stephen and along the A685. “This is not a lot of calls,” he said.

Mrs Johnstone said calls were not being answered. Supt Pannone replied that dialling 999 was an alternative if the situation was serious.

One resident said he had witnessed a man urinating in a bus shelter in Kirkby Stephen who, despite being spoken to by a police officer, was not arrested.

Mr Dew said that in Kirkby Stephen there had been a complete loss of confidence in policing which he added was “not a good position”. “We have to have an assurance the police force is capable of doing a job that we expect them to do,” he said.

Supt Pannone said it was “concerning” that collectively the Kirkby Stephen community had lost confidence in the police. “Clearly something has gone wrong in Kirkby Stephen. I want to work with you so that next year we don’t have a repeat,” he said.

Rachel Girvan said that in all communities there were “rotten eggs” but suggested eight arrests was not a lot for an event the size of the horse fair.

She added: “How many travellers were involved in that gentleman being beaten up in that road accident? I reckon there were more than eight. Your officers are scared of the travellers.”

Supt Pannone said eight arrests were made in Appleby, as well as 15 in other areas, because 23 arrestable offices had been committed. It was “simply not the case” that his officers were scared.

“The vast majority of gypsies and travellers don’t commit arrestable offences. It’s not a case that we don’t arrest because we are scared,” he said.

Regarding the assault on the 61-year-old Appleby grandfather, following a road accident in which a child was injured, he said no-one had yet been arrested because police needed to identify specific people who they believed were responsible.

He added: “We had an officer at the scene but he was quite indisposed at the time. We need to have enough evidential information, specifying individuals, to make arrests.”

One Kirkby Stephen resident, who lives in High Street, said she had not got a decent night’s sleep because of horses galloping up and down the road until the early hours.

Supt Pannone said riding a horse during the early hours was “not an arrestable offence”.

From the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald on Saturday, June 30, 2018.