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High Court to Decide on Eviction of 11 Families

Dale Farm Bulletin #4
July 3, 2007
For Immediate Release

Contact: Grattan Puxon, Secretary of Dale Farm Housing Association, +44 01206523528

The British High Court will decide on Thursday whether to provide 11 Traveler families with temporary protection against eviction.

A lawyer for the families, Keith Lomax, submitted the request to the Court in London on Wednesday.

Currently, there are 45 properties at Dale Farm covered by a court injunction which renders illegal any eviction proceedings against them until a High Court hearing later this year. The eleven properties in question, however, were not afforded the same protection.

Tensions are high at the Dale Farm Traveler site as community members await the High Court’s upcoming decision.  If the Court decides against extending the injunction to the 11 families, many of the Travelers will be forced to the roadside because temporary Travel sites have yet to be constructed by the Basildon Local Council.

Many of the Travelers facing eviction are elderly, and community members fear that the impact of a violent eviction could have severe medical repercussions. Margaret Clark, 85, stated, “I have no place to go if they evict us from Dale Farm. I can’t even walk out of my caravan without assistance. If I am forced to the roadside, I don’t know if I will survive.”

Other sites for housing accommodation put forth by the Dale Farm Housing Association have been rejected by Basildon Council. Most notably, the council rejected the Association’s latest attempt to obtain planning permission at Pitsea for six of the neediest families facing eviction at Dale Farm.

The total cost of evicting the eleven yards could amount to £200,000. Last year, local councils throughout England spent nearly £18 million to keep Travelers awat from their jurisdiction, and on the road. This underlines the need to develop permanent or temporary sites where Travelers can live without facing the contstant threat of eviction.

• The Dale Farm Bulletin is produced on behalf of the Dale Farm Community Association by Grattan Puxon, Secretary of the Association, and Zach Scott, a 2007 Peace Fellow of The Advocacy Project. For more information, contact Grattan Puxon or Zach Scott. For the Dale Farm chronology and Association news, visit Dale Farm's partner page.

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