COUNCILLORS in Selby have been asked to attend an awareness-raising event to find out more about the lives of the gipsy and traveller communities.

The invitation to the event comes only days after the council was criticised by the office of Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for not doing enough to provide new sites and housing for the travelling community.

A letter was sent from Coun Chris Metcalfe, the executive’s lead member for communities, on Tuesday, to every Selby district councillor requesting their attendance at the event, which will be held at the civic centre next month.

Coun Metcalfe said the event had nothing to do with the Government criticism, as research and planning for the event had been carried out for several months.

He said: “We have done a tremendous amount of research before we started to work with anybody on this. We need to understand a lot of issues that affect that community but they are very cautious about who they speak to and who they trust.”

Earlier this month, the council was criticised by the Government in a report into an appeal against an enforcement order relating to 20 caravans on land at Hillcrest Cafe, South Milford.

It said: “There has been a failure of policy by this council to address the needs of the traveller community and facilitate the gypsy way of life.”

Coun Metcalfe said he hoped that by councillors engaging with Horton Homes, who manage two legal traveller sites in Selby, and representatives from the traveller community, a degree of integration and mutual respect could be achieved, to create a stronger relationship between the two groups.

He said: “It’s not about treating them differently, it’s about treating them the same.

“These people live in our community and the Government say we have to provide facilities for them in the same way we provide for the settled community, and this is our attempt to understand what makes them tick, and respond to that.”

Coun Metcalfe said every district councillor had been invited to the meeting, on September 11, but could not confirm how many had so far accepted the invitation.