Travellers in York are furious about being given a big National Lottery grant they say they don't want or need.

Travellers spokesman Thomas Swales with residents of the James Street site in York today, who say they don't need a £180,000 grant from the Lottery Charities Board

Residents from the James Street site in York said today that they would give the £180,000 to St Leonard's Hospice if they had their way.

And their spokesman, Thomas Swales, said they did not know anything about the cash until they read about it in the Evening Press.

We reported yesterday that the York Travellers' Trust had been awarded the grant a day after the hospice's bid for £1 million was turned down.

The cash for the Trust is to be used to help establish residents' associations on travellers' sites and a centrally-based travellers' advice and support centre. The trust's co-ordinator, Tony White, said the cash would make a difference to travellers' lives.

But Mr Swales said he had been bombarded with visits from angry travellers from both the James Street and Outgang Lane sites, who found out about the money through yesterday's Evening Press.

"They don't want charity and they don't need charity from any lottery money.

"They want the cash to be given to the hospice.

"The people I've spoken to have never heard of this bid and knew nothing about it. Nobody has been from caravan to caravan to canvass about this they've been told nothing about it.

"As in all walks of life, you get good and bad, but no traveller is in need of money that could have gone to needier causes of which, God knows, we may all need at some time."

York Travellers Trust is currently a part of York Council for Voluntary Service (CVS), though it is due to become an independent charity on January 1.

CVS general secretary Colin Stroud said he was concerned that travellers might feel they were going to get a backlash because the hospice had not received a grant, adding the two were not linked.

"To say that the travellers haven't known about the application is very difficult for me to accept. Certainly a lot of them know about the application," he said.

"If they are genuinely saying they don't want the project we will have to listen to what they say."

At the James Street site today, traveller Elaine Mulvenna said: "Our children don't need that money and we would rather it went to St Leonard's Hospice."

Her friend Julia Wilson said: "If we need advice we can go to the council, the DSS, the CAB or a solicitor - we're not backward, we're just the same as anyone else. The travelling community does not want this money and doesn't know anything about it."

Traveller Jim Wilson added: "What do we need an office for?"

"I have had a loss in my family with cancer," said mum Mary Smith. "I would sooner it went to the hospice."

Regional manager for the Lottery Charities Board, Helen Wollaston, said Mr Swales had not been in touch with them.

She said: "We all know people have different opinions. The application that came to us was a very high quality application with clear evidence of need."

The chairman of the trust, Percy Roberts, said he was surprised by Mr Swales' comments, adding they were just beginning to develop the trust.

A spokeswoman for St Leonard's Hospice said: "We can't comment on the grant, but it's wonderful that the travellers are so supportive of the hospice."

See Hospice section

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.