MORE criticism of the designation of special sites for travelling people emerged during St Boswells Fair, according to George Higgs, chairman of the Borders Equality Forum.

As reported last week, Scottish Borders Council provides just one such location: a 10-berth area of the Tweedside Caravan Park in Innerleithen.

Fenced off from the rest of the leisure facility, it was likened to a "prison camp" by Cheryl Hutchison, who runs a carpet business in Galashiels and comes from one of 20 families of Romany extraction who attended Sunday's fair.

Mr Higgs, who is is monitoring all traveller movements in the region over the summer, said Mrs Hutchison's disparaging opinion of the Innerleithen site was shared by many families he met on the village green.

"In fact, the feedback from the gypsy community seems to be that designating special areas is not what they need or want ... they feel they are being ghettoised and I can quite understand that."

Mr Higgs was commenting after visiting St Boswells over the weekend and handing out welcome leaflets on behalf of SBC, the police and NHS Borders. The publication gave a detailed site map and pointed travellers in the direction of rubbish skips and toilet facilities.

"This initiative was very well received, particularly by the three families making their first visit to St Boswells," reported Mr Higgs. "A father and daughter who stopped on their way from the Scottish Highlands to their home in Cornwall were extremely impressed with what we had done. They said they had never been made to feel so welcome."

Mr Higgs said the police on duty close to the fair reported no criminal or road traffic offences and he revealed the number of travellers was slightly down on last year when 22 units were on the green.

"The fortune tellers appeared to be doing a steady trade, but there was some annoyance that the St Boswells event, which is so symbolic of the travellers' cultural identity, clashed this year with the Musselburgh Fair which sees harness racing at the racecourse and usually takes place in August."

Mr Higgs has undertaken to "meet and greet" as many travellers as possible this summer before compiling a report for the council and the police by the end of the year.

"Apart from not wanting herded into special sites, the travellers seem generally happy with our non-harrassment policy.