“WE DO not want our children to turn out like we did.”

Those were the words of a Romany gipsy who wants to live on Green Belt land so she can send her children to school.

Two sister-in-laws, who did not want to be named, and their 12 children have moved on to land off Woodstock Road near Yarnton.

They say their illiterate children have not had an education because they have been moved on by police for staying on land they do not own for the last four years.

But they own the Yarnton plot, bought at auction by a family friend, and are now determined to stay, with or without council permission.

One of the mothers said: “We are not noisy, we do not go causing trouble and we keep ourselves to ourselves.

“But we cannot read or write and we want our children to go to school so that they can.”

She added: “We will just keep trying and trying until we get permission. If we do not get it we will be on the roadside again and our kids will be out of school.”

Her sister-in-law said: “We want to put our kids into school because it is good to get an education.”

She said: “The police have moved us every two or three days from the road side. We have got nowhere else to go.

“We would have settled down earlier if we could, but it is just finding somewhere.”

Eleven-year-old Emily Price said: “We want to go to school because we cannot read and write.”

And Roseanna Price, 15, said: “It is quiet and peaceful.”

The family have four caravans and a portable toilet on the site, as well as six small dogs and two cats.

A planning boss said the travellers can use the site for about two months under current planning rules, after which they need Cherwell District Council permission.

Denise Couling, 45, who lives near the site in Woodstock Road, said: “I know residents along Woodstock Road are not happy that they have put caravans on to a Green Belt site.

“If anyone else had done it they would have been told in no uncertain terms to get off.

“I know we have all got to live somewhere, and I have no problem with them being there, as long as they have got permission.”

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s executive lead member for planning, said: “Obviously they do not need permission to go on their own land.

“However, if there were to be any permanent site there it would need planning permission, particularly because it is Green Belt.”