GYPSIES living at the Surrey County Council-owned Willows site in Runfold have complained that they are being ignored and treated as second class citizens by their landlords. "If it's gypsies, they don't want to know," said John Stevens, one of the site's senior residents, alleging that county officers won't speak to them on the phone and don't come to the site. The Herald was to experience similar treatment, with no council reply forthcoming on a range of issues - from fire safety to irregular rent collections and filthy drinking water - despite a week of repeated approaches. The issue that prompts most anger among the gypsies is that six months after a woman bravely pulled a toddler from a blaze which destroyed a mobile home and a caravan at the site, the council still won't supply any fire hoses. Although 28 smoke detectors were fitted by the fire service across the site in the aftermath of the fire, what the gypsies say they want is the means to tackle a blaze quickly. "A young man and his family have lost everything. If they had had a fire hose, the damage wouldn't be so bad and it could have been repaired," said John Stevens. The charred remains of the mobile home remain as a daily reminder to its neighbours of how close a family came to tragedy in April. The county council has offered to shift the wreckage at its own expense for the safety of other residents, but the family that owns it won't give the go-ahead. Sarah Kelly, who with her husband and three children was made homeless, said they are staying with her father until they have the money to replace their home. She believes the county council should be paying them compensation. "I had a fire hose on my plot, but they took it away. We had been asking for them to be brought back. We have no money to replace what we lost," she said, adding that the family is also in dispute with an insurance company that has refused to pay out. The gypsies say they live in fear that another blaze could take place with fatal consequences and they believe the county council is in breach of the law. According to Mr Stevens, when other gypsies won the battle to stay on a smaller site they owned themselves nearby, Waverley Council laid down as a planning condition that there must be fire hoses and extinguishers provided. "If they have to have them, why don't we?" In a statement after the fire, the county council said the fire service, and not residents, were the proper people to tackle a fire. And they claimed a hose was removed from the site after it was repeatedly vandalised and replaced, at a cost of £2,000 a time. But the gypsies deny that there has ever been any vandalism or trouble at the site, which accommodates 10 mobile homes. According to them, one of the hoses was removed after the pipe serving it was damaged by contractors during replacement of the site's sewer. They say management of the site deteriorated about a year ago, when the site warden left and was not replaced. One man who has lived at the Willows since it opened claimed that it's "rough and ready" travellers sites that always seem to claim the council's attention and cash. Residents said they pay £1,000 a year council tax plus £46 a week, comprising the ground rent for the plot their homes stand on, plus the rental of the breezeblock "utility" block next to each home. But grievances are rife that the utilty buildings are in poor condition, with toilets leaking for years and glass hanging out of the window frames. "We are sitting here all peaceful and quiet and don't get anything done - hardly a penny has been spent in 19 years," said the man, who asked that his name shouldn't be used. His wife spoke of how the council installed a second-hand bath for her family. "That wouldn't happen to a council tenant in a house," she pointed out. Other grievances included a lack of regular rent collections, with gaps of as long as three months leading to a build-up of back rent. "We haven't got any rent books, it's just written down on a piece of paper," The Herald was told. Several residents spoke of having to buy bottled water because sediment in the mains supply makes it unfit for drinking. "Sometimes it's even too brown to use the washing machine," said one woman. In protest, no one has been paying their water bills, it was claimed. But what finally prompted the approach to The Herald was the lack of response from the county council when some homes were left without electricity. The gypsies access their power by buying cards supplied to Tongham Post Office by the council. But the post office had run out of cards, despite attempts to get the council to send more. John Stevens said that by the time cards were dispatched, some residents had been without power for 48 hours. All attempts to speak to a relevant officer by phone had failed "as usual". "A lady at the CAB spent two-and-a-half hours trying to phone, but they wouldn't speak to her either," he added. "This is one of the quietest sites and we are all happy to live here. Perhaps we just haven't spoken up enough, but when we do, there's never anyone to talk to," one resident summed up sadly.