THE traditional values of wanting to look after your family and provide them with a home is still shared by many men, including Clarence Ware.

But what is making it harder for the 51-year-old to achieve that is that he is a Romany Gypsy who has so far been unable to get planning permission to reside on land he owns.

Clarence has been living on a site near Tedburn St Mary which is tucked out of sight and not intrusive with six other members of his family, including his 27-year-old son, for the past two years.

Last week, he was refused planning permission for the third time, on this occasion on the grounds of sustainability and road access.

Clarence's priority remains providing a home for his family so he has revised his application for a fourth time and is applying for just a family unit.

Clarence, an excavator driver, recalled: "I originally put in an application for a small site for my family, but I was advised to withdraw it by Teignbridge District Council and apply for 22 pitches, a much larger site, to help the burden the council has to provide pitches. We should have just applied for a family unit.

"The answer is councils must allow travellers who are willing to provide parcels on land in non-intrusive places to build sites. If we were allowed to run them they would be kept in order.

"We have all got to learn to live together. The country is becoming smaller and we have not got the space we used to have. There's not enough houses for non-travellers so if all of us stopped living in caravans there would be even less."

For Clarence and many other Gypsies and travellers it is modern life that is forcing them to become settled. It is a far cry from the lives his parents had when they travelled in tents and wagons.

Clarence revealed: "My mum was part of the well-known Richards family and was one of 22 children.

"They travelled around Cornwall and all they had was a pony and wagon. When they slept they would put down a sheet for the girls to sleep on. The boys would be lucky if they found a log to sleep under. That's how it was.

"Then they upgraded to an old coach. In those days travellers travelled with the intention of working on the land for farmers and collected scrap.

"My dad's family were travelling showmen; they were fairground people. They travelled until 1960 when my grandfather settled in Cornwall and became a scrap metal merchant. My father later helped run it."

It was always assumed that Clarence would one day follow in his father's footsteps, being an only child. His mother had a heart condition which meant she couldn't have any more children.

Looking back at his childhood Clarence said: "My life was more settled. I went to primary and secondary school and also went back to college to re-educate myself so I have got a good level of education."

It was fortunate he did because after his mother died at the age of 46, having suffered from rheumatoid arthritis brought about by the damp conditions she slept in, his dad passed away six weeks later of a heart attack.

Clarence was 19 and continued the family business. Years later he moved to Devon to live with his current partner and he got the travelling bug again.

"It was like a piece of my life was missing," explained Clarence. "We travelled for a couple of years and went all over the country but it was not the same any more.

"People don't welcome you and we had to use a caravan that didn't look like a travellers' caravan."

Clarence and his family have now been living in Devon for 10 years and during the past five years have bought three different properties to try to get planning permission to live on site.

On their last attempt the family even invited members of the public to come to visit them on their site to gain some understanding of their need to find a home. Many did just that and Clarence is hopeful that more people will come to accept them in the future.

He said: "The worst thing I come across is what I call the Nimby situation – not in my back yard. Wherever we stop there's always someone who wants to oppose us. It's constant pressure.

"I believe it is wrong to prejudge a person on a perception of a number of people. That's what I'm up against.

"If I was to die tomorrow my son would not have a chance. He couldn't stand the pressure I'm under, but they will get to the point where they will not put up with it any more like I have. I will fight until the end."