North Wales Police have launched a crackdown on businesses that display "No Traveller" signs.

Businesses displaying similar signs will have their details passed on to the Commission for Racial Equality in Wales, which says it will take action.

The force claims it is the first such policy in the UK.

Assistant chief constable Ian Shannon said: "Discrimination against gypsies and Irish travellers is widespread and completely unacceptable."

The force has told its officers to take note of signs in pubs, shops and other public premises that advertise an anti-traveller policy.

Mr Shannon added that they would help to tackle discrimintation "by identifying the presence of 'No Travellers' notices and passing the information to the CRE so that action can be taken".

Chris Myant, director of the Commission for Racial Equality in Wales, said: "If these signs were to refer to any other group in our society, there would be uproar.

"Yet, 40 years after Parliament declared the practice to be unlawful we still see pubs, shops and other premises putting up 'No Travellers' or similar announcements.

"There must be zero tolerance for public expressions of prejudice of this kind." He added: "We hope others who are in a position to report to the Commission the presence of such notices will join in partnership with us in helping to make the whole of Wales an area free of such abuses.

"Those responsible for premises need to deal with bad behaviour by customers on the basis of what those customers actually do, not simply who they are."

Vera Norwood, from the Gypsy Council, said: "This probably is a first, and I hope other forces follow suit.

"Gypsies are the one minority people seem to be allowed to insult and be rude about. There's too much of it going on - it's pretty rotten and it should be stopped.

"It's excellent news. Jolly good for them."

Fine then, ban them on an individual basis. Police defending travellers? There's a first, considering the awful damage they cause to areas.

nfortunately, due to a bit of excessive action by Cheltenham Borough Council, the Court of Appeal has set precedent that "travellers" who are not actually Gypsies by definition are still a "distinct ethnic group".

It is correct that it is illegal to discriminate against travellers in such a way, but I very much doubt the businesses concerned realise it is illegal, seeing as my understanding until recently was that you could only be racist towards proper gypsies, not those who choose to impersonate them whilst leaving calor gas cannisters and human excrement behind when they move on.

Does this mean that if me and my family started touring the country in a camper van, leaving excrement and rubbish behind at every available opportunity, we'd be a distinct ethnic group? I thought diversity was all about social inclusion, not minority groups. IMHO the CRE is one of the biggest racist organisations about!

Especially if you happen to be a white heterosexual male