THE family of a gypsy woman who has been refused permission to join them on a caravan park claim the county council is guilty of racial harassment.

Mother-of-four Teresa Maloney is unhappy after the county council refused to grant a licence for her to live on a plot at Thingley Caravan Park.

Mrs Maloney said she wants the chance to give her autistic son, Jerry, an education and a permanent home but the council are forcing her back on to the road.

Mrs Maloney arrived at the caravan park a month ago and took an unaccompanied plot strewn with rubbish, near her relatives.

Her family tided up the plot and then applied to Wiltshire County Council for a license but it was refused. The council is now trying to evict Mrs Maloney and her children.

"All I want is to have somewhere my children can settle so they can go to school. If we are evicted we will be forced into teaching them on the side of the road and what kind of life will that be? My autistic son really needs help as he is up and down all the time," said Mrs Maloney.

But the council is standing its ground and refusing to help the family. A spokesman said: "Mrs Maloney and her partner arrived at the Thingley site for a family christening several weeks ago.

"They are not residents at the site, but applied for a licence. While the application was being processed, there were a number of incidents.

"Having considered all the relevant factors we decided not to grant the application and asked the applicants to vacate the site.

"We allowed them ten days to leave, but they did not. On August 1, they were asked to leave by noon yesterday, but are still on site. We are considering what action to take."

Mrs Maloney has four children, Jimmy Patrick, two, Joe, three, Eileena, five and seven-year-old Jerry.

Eileena has a place at Corsham County Primary School where she went before the summer break. Mrs Maloney has also secured a place for Jerry for the new term.

She believes the council is victimising her and want her to leave the site because she is an Irish traveller.

Her sister-in-law, Eileen Connors, who lives on the site, said: "They don't want any more travellers here and yet the site was set up for us. It is now mostly house dwellers. It is racism. They have no real reason to evict her."

She said the council was accusing Mrs Maloney of fly tipping, but this was just an excuse to evict them.

She said: "There was no such thing. All they did was move some breezeblocks to build a kennel for the dog. When the tractor came to pick up the rubbish the driver couldn't understand what he was meant to be moving because there was nothing there.

"We are prepared to take it to court to prove nothing was dumped."

Mrs Maloney, who suffers from depression and was sectioned at Devizes Hospital a few months ago, said: "It was absolutely horrible when we got here.

"There was rubbish everywhere but we cleaned it all up and took all the rubbish to the dump even though it wasn't our mess.

"I have travelled all my life but now I need somewhere to settle for the sake of my children and my own health."

Her mother Mary Cash said the group members were all changing their way of life because they realised their children and grandchildren needed to get an education and learn to read and write.