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Basildon Council Votes for Eviction

Dale Farm Bulletin #1
June 6, 2007
For Immediate Release

Zachary Scott, Advocacy Project, 07906821841

Grattan Puxon, 01206523529


The Development Control and Traffic Management Committee of the Basildon Council voted last night to take direct action under  S178 of the Town & Country Planning Act to evict l4 families in eleven properties at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, Essex.

Pleas by members of Dale Farm that the eviction be suspended until an alternative site could be developed were ignored. They have applied for planning permission to built a chalet park at Terminus Drive, Pitsea, as proposed earlier by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The vote clearly shows that the council deems the protection of the Green Belt as more important than the than potential suffering that members of the community will face once they have been rendered homeless.

Members of the Dale Farm community who attended the meeting expressed concerns that the committee did not fully comprehend the magnitude of its decision. Even local council members in attendance expressed apprehension. Nethermayne Ward Councillor Geoff Williams stated that the committee members, 'would have to live with a heavy conscience the rest of their lives,' for making the decision to continue with evict.

Fortunately, the committee's decision was not unexpected. Members of Dale Farm's Housing Association had already completed legal aid forms for all eleven properties and in the hope that they can be included in a previous injunction, which protects the rest of Dale Farm until a pending judicial review is heard by the High Court later this year. However, as Grattan Puxon stated, the Housing Association is undertaking, 'a race against time,' as its lawyer is now searching for a sympathetic judge who can be persuaded to include the eleven properties under the same injunction.

The committee's decision to evict comes is particularly troubling since many of the residents of the eleven properties are either terminally ill or pregnant mothers. Constant & Co., the bailiff company employed by the committee to carry out the eviction, has repeatedly ignored health and safety regulations when bulldozing properties during previous evictions. The fear is that Constant & Co.'s negligence will continue at Dale Farm, jeopardizing the lives of those residents who are up for eviction.

Dale Farm is the largest Traveller community in the UK with over 1,000 residents. Over the past two years, the 86 Traveller families at Dale Farm have been defending their rights to build on land that they own.

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