TWO families of travellers who angered Bentley villagers by buying up farmland before illegally settling on it have asked for a chance to be part of the community.

The group, headed by brothers Jimmy and John Wenman, say they would gladly attend a parish council meeting, if invited, to allow villagers to meet them and "judge for themselves" their characters and intentions.

Adi Wenman, who shares one of the site's homes with husband Jimmy, their three-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter currently enrolled at a local primary school, said that they have been "tarred with the same brush" as travellers who steal, create mess and cause general disruption in the communities within which they settle.

"What we really want to say to people in Bentley is that we're doing no wrong here," she told The Herald.

"They're more than welcome to come here, to pop round and judge us for themselves. At the minute we're being judged on nothing."

Expressing sadness at the way travellers as a social group are frequently depicted in the media as being unruly and unsympathetic to the feelings of the "settled" community, she said: "You get bad ones and you get good ones. Nobody classes everyone as the same, so why should we get judged as the same?

"Why should we get classed as being the dirty, no-good thieves that some are?"

The request for reconciliation comes three weeks after the families moved two modular homes and portable toilets on to a two-acre plot adjacent to sewage works fronting the south-bound carriageway of the A31.

The Wenmans had bought the land, which is designated as grazing land and not available for development, for more than £30,000 from a property developer in Farnham.

East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) moved to take out an injunction on the families at the beginning of November, disallowing any further development of the site, but the matter has been adjourned until December 1 while the Wenmans' lawyer prepares their case.

Tina Wenman, who is married to John, said that the council does not provide enough fixed sites for travellers, forcing them to make their own arrangements.

Arguing that the nearest council site is Fareham, she said of Bentley: "It's a nice area and we'd like to bring our children up in a nice area. But there's not a site here, is there?"

Tina has three daughters, aged 14, eight and one, and a son, aged 11. She believes that the village is an ideal place to settle "for life".

Both Adi and Tina say that the government "does more for refugees" than for people such as themselves, who were "born and bred in this country".

According to Adi, since the two families moved into Bentley, they have suffered verbal and physical harassment of the sort usually associated with the persecution of illegal immigrants.

"People are continuously on the bridge taking pictures of us," she said. "Even this morning, there was someone up there for about 15 minutes taking pictures of us. And then we get loads of little children getting up there, calling us dirty gipsies and pikies and throwing stones at our children.

However, the sisters-in-law revealed that some villagers had visited their home to welcome them to the community.

"Some have come over here and welcomed us into Bentley and said they've got no problem with us," said Adi. "They've come over quite a few times when they've been walking their dogs and things."

Adi said that, far from segregating herself from the community, she would be willing to represent her family at a Bentley Parish Council meeting.

"If they invited me, I would go. I've got nothing to hide, I'm not a bad person."

And she argued that, contrary to popular belief, not all travellers' children are undisciplined and prone to acts of vandalism and petty theft.

She said she would even take her children along to a parish council meeting "to show them how well-mannered they are".

"We want to stay here for life," she said. "The only reason that we'd have to move is if we keep getting ridiculed by people."

When asked where she and the two families had come from, what their plans were for developing the site, and what they did for a living, she replied that, because of the EHDC legal dispute, she was not at liberty to answer.

"We have got reasons for being here, but we can't go into them at the minute."

Dave Asher, the chairman of Bentley Parish Council, said that the council's meetings were public and that they "had nothing in particular to discuss" regarding the issue, as it was a district planning matter.

The Wenmans, if they chose to attend a council meeting, would have the right to address the council in the usual 10-minute slot allocated for public questions.