It seems strange that in the five months that have passed since their eviction, in some ways, everything is different for the Dale Farm Travellers but, in other ways, nothing has changed.  The home they had made over the past ten years is unrecognisable:  Basildon Council has dug up every yard and has intentionally left piles of rubble blocking any possible entrance point into the site. Bunding (enormous mounds of earth and deep ditches) on the road makes it impossible for residents who are legally allowed to remain to get their trailers anywhere near the three legal pitches. (Lorraine Brown, Basildon Council’s legal representative, told these residents that they would need a helicopter to re-enter their yards.)  It has been left resembling a bombsite and has now become a prime site for fly tipping.  It seems impossible to imagine that Basildon Council has any intention of returning it to green fields as it promised (particularly since none of the eviction budget was allocated for this purpose).

Photos: The road leading to the 3 legal yards at Dale Farm; A sign put up by activists before the eviction is one of the only surviving structures on the site; View of the legal yards at Oak Lane. Photos by Mary Turner and Susan Craig-Greene

Dale Farm residents, however, did not just disappear after the eviction as Basildon Council hoped. The majority remain just past the boundary of the Dale Farm site on the legal Traveller site at Oak Lane. The conditions under which they are living are far worse than before. Some have been allowed temporary refuge on relatives’ legal yards with limited access to amenities (electricity, water, toilets) but the majority are forced to live alongside the main road of the site without even these basic necessities.  Spirits are low and tensions high and these hazardous conditions are taking their toll. Both the UN and the Red Cross have visited the site and have submitted reports to Basildon Council detailing the environmental health implications of living under these conditions. Opponents to the Travellers and the local press often claim that the Dale Farm residents have other places to live – but having seen the post-eviction reality at Dale Farm first-hand, I find it difficult to believe that anyone would choose to live there, if they had anywhere else to go.

Their lives have been turned upside down and, to make matters worse, they are facing all of the same problems they were trying to tackle before the eviction. The Council is still refusing to engage in constructive negotiations to find a long-term solution to its problem, despite the Travellers’ eagerness to work with the Council to find a suitable alternative site. This week they not only lost again in the courts (this time they lost their appeal arguing that Basildon Council should be required to provide culturally appropriate accommodation), but they were also served with Planning Contravention Orders requiring them to leave the legal site within 21 days.  The Travellers know that it is only a matter of time before they are again facing an eviction, and the Council has still not addressed the residents’ very real concerns that consistent and reliable access to schools and healthcare whilst on the road will not be possible.

Photos: A post-eviction view of one of the 3 legal yards at Dale Farm. Basildon has left it impossible to re-enter; Jeany and her grandson Richard. She is awaiting surgeries at Basildon Hospital but will soon be forced out of the area; View of caravans on the main road at Oak Lane. Photos by Susan Craig-Greene

So, where do we go from here? I don’t believe it is too late to find a long-term solution. Council Leader Tony Ball has stated “the council accepts that it will need to provide additional pitches to cater for the growth of the traveller population who live legally in the borough and it will be working with the travellers to do this.” This is an important declaration. So, CL Ball, is there a willingness on the part of the Council to engage with the Dale Farm Travellers who have been made homeless by the eviction and have a clear need for pitches? Wouldn’t this serve Basildon’s interests better than further costly enforcement action that has no guarantee of solving the problems of either side?

Four months have now passed since Jimmy Tom’s 7^th birthday. In the weeks leading up to his birthday, all he could talk about was how much he wanted to still be in his home at Dale Farm to celebrate it. Jimmy Tom got his wish, but it wasn’t at all as he had imagined. At 7 a.m. on his birthday, Jimmy Tom was woken up by the activists’ alarm sounding across the site and riot police storming past his trailer.

Photos by Mary Turner. Click here for more eviction photos.

Luckily, Jimmy Tom was hidden away inside his caravan as the heavy-handed scene unfolded outside. Scores of riot police, grouped closely together and protected by shields, stormed through a fence at the back of the site, fired Taser guns indiscriminately at residents/protestors running towards them, knocked several residents forcefully to the ground (one resulting in a fractured spine), and demolished walls and fences (protected by a court order) as they made their way through the site. Residents looked on in horror and disbelief as the site swelled with what seemed like never-ending groups of police. There was a momentary pause as Jimmy Tom’s aunt Michelle briefly held back police and made an impassioned speech telling the police that they should be ashamed of themselves and that they were in breach of the court order. Nothing, however, could stop the beginning of the end at Dale Farm.

Photos by Mary Turner and Susan Craig-Greene. Click here for more eviction photos.

I was in a bit of a daze that day.  After arriving through a back way with a barbed wire gash on my head¸ I entered the site to find rows of riot police, distressed residents, burning caravans, and activists locked on to any immovable structure they could find. I am not sure what I had expected to find, but I certainly was not prepared for this. I had an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness, a resounding realisation that we had failed the residents, as I walked aimlessly around the site. Even now, I haven’t lost the feeling of frustration, disappointment and disillusionment that overcame me on that day. All I could think was, “How has it come to this?”. This could have been easily avoided. Providing an alternative site or sites for the residents was, and still is, the obvious solution at Dale Farm, a long-term solution that would serve both the interests of the residents and the Council. Instead, millions of pounds have been wasted, lives and homes destroyed, and the problems for Travellers and the Council continue.

Photos by Susan Craig-Greene. Click here for more eviction photos.

In the midst of this chaos and devastation, I felt powerless but tried to help with the small things.  Probably the most useful thing I felt I could do that day was to help Nora (Jimmy Tom’s mother) who was determined to give him a little piece of normality on his birthday.  The community police, who have always been helpful and well-liked at Dale Farm, escorted Nora, Jimmy Tom and me off the site to my car so that we could go to Asda to buy him a cake and a few decorations. Whilst we were away, Basildon Council cut off the electricity to the trailers and residents were forced to rely on small generators and torches. For a few moments during the small celebration with his immediate family and cousins in his trailer, we shut out what was going on outside.  Jimmy Tom, who has excelled during the last 2 years at the local school, was excited to read “The Gruffalo” (the book I’d got him) aloud to me several times.  At one point, the generator died and he was so eager to continue, we read by the light of my phone screen. All I could think as we were reading in the dark was that this was not just about one phenomenally bad birthday for Jimmy Tom. This could mark the end of his education (if he and his family are forced onto the road) and perhaps even of his way of life (if councils like Basildon continue to refuse to work with Travellers to find them somewhere culturally suitable to live).

Jimmy Tom will always remember his 7^th birthday as the day Basildon Council forced his and 50 other Traveller families from their homes at Dale Farm. I will always remember it as the day my local council failed not only this little boy, but his entire community.

Here is a link to a collection of photos I have taken at Dale Farm since Basildon Council issued the 28 days’ notice letters to residents on 4 July.  Since then, residents’ lives have been turned upside down.

At Dale Farm, the Travellers are adapting to a changing world where travelling as they once did is no longer an option. They are able to live in caravans as they have traditionally done, to take responsibility for the needs of their extended families and, if able, to continue to travel as much as they can during school holidays. Parents who cannot read or write at all can see their children making significant progress at Crays Hill School. Elderly and ill relatives who may not have survived on the road have consistent access to the healthcare they need. Travellers from Dale Farm attend the local Catholic Church regularly, have welcomed people from the wider community into their homes and are willing to make a significant effort to build bridges with a local community that has been overtly hostile towards them.

With an eviction, this progress will have been wasted. They are facing life on the road, where they could be moved on daily, making it almost impossible to access even basic healthcare or education services. Most of the children were born in Basildon and have never known life on the road. Basildon Council is sending them a clear message that there is no legal place for them in this community. Who will give Travellers a legal place  in society?  And when will the UK government and local councils realize that by further marginalizing them, they are not only ignoring the human rights of an ethnic minority but also causing themselves on-going problems in the future?

Although residents have tried to hold on to a semblance of normality during this process, the worry and stress has permeated everything. They have been through a roller-coaster ride of emotions; They have packed up their belongings and mourned the loss of their homes and community. They have seen their homes become overrun by protestors and barricades. They have stood behind a cemented gate waiting for bailiffs to enter. And after a last-minute reprieve, they have been given a glimmer of hope that something good might come of these last three judicial reviews.

The waiting is the worst part.  Today, at least, we will know the answer.

As we were driving out of Dale Farm the other day, my five year-old son said to me, “Mummy, if you tell the judge that it is the Travellers’ culture to live together in caravans, maybe he will let them stay there.” After thinking a bit more about it, he told me, “It won’t be enough for you to just say that it’s not fair. You are going to have to tell the judge a lot more than that.”

Here we are again. Tomorrow we are facing yet another crucial ruling; the Dale Farm residents’ fate is in the hands of yet another judge.

Dennis playing with his suitcase outside his yard at Dale Farm, days before the eviction is due to begin. Photo by Susan Craig-Greene, 2011.

The residents have, in some respects, already won. Three weeks ago, bailiffs, who had set up an intimidating compound in a field near their homes where ponies used to roam, approached the barricaded gate and were set to commence a complete site clearance. Now, an injunction and three judicial reviews later, Basildon Council has been forced to admit it was going to over-enforce and has now conceded hard standing, fences, gates, walls and several yards and buildings. The site will never be the greenbelt Basildon promised, the costs are spiralling out of control and there are calls from all sides for someone (namely, Tony Ball) to be held accountable for what can only be described as a botched eviction. But what does any of this mean for the Dale Farm residents if, in the end, they can still not remain in their homes and there is still no obligation on Basildon Council to help them find somewhere culturally-suitable to live?

The ruling tomorrow on the three judicial reviews is critical. If the Travellers lose, the majority of the families will still be evicted with nowhere to go.

So have we done enough? Have we convinced this judge that the impact of an eviction on education and health is unnecessary and disproportionate? Have we convinced him that no peaceful, viable alternative solution has been offered or sought by Basildon Council? Have we convinced him that this eviction is not a long-term solution for anyone and that further marginalizing this community will exacerbate the problem? Have we convinced him that there is a long-term solution; alternative sites must be found and planning applications taken seriously?

My son is right. It won’t be enough to argue that this isn’t fair. Let’s hope we’ve done enough.

We thought it was all over.  At 3 p.m. on Monday, a group of bailiffs in a huddle (surrounded by police and press) left their enclosure for the first time and approached the barricaded gates at Dale Farm.  After making a muffled announcement that only a few members of the press actually heard, they retreated but it seemed they were ready to move. Little did most people know, as protestors were standing firm (one with her neck bicycle-locked to the front gate) ready for bailiffs to storm the gates, one resident and two supporters had, against all odds and without legal representation, achieved an emergency injunction to challenge the enforcement notices and stop the eviction at least until Friday. Residents and supporters cheered as they heard the news.

Michelle Sheridan consoling her son, Tom, in their trailer at Dale Farm. Photograph by Susan Craig-Greene, 2011.

Dale Farm resident and mother of four boys, Michelle Sheridan, said that it was a scary experience standing before the High Court judge pleading for what seemed like their last chance to save their homes.  She said, “the judge was very understanding when we didn’t know when to stand and they gave us scented tissues when we were crying.” The judge ruled that there are grounds to consider whether or not Basildon Council’s plan for an entire site clearance would be unlawful and would go beyond the scope of the enforcement notices, and set the hearing date for Friday.  Tony Ball and Basildon Council have no one to blame but themselves for the increasing cost of the eviction, which offers no real long-term solution for anyone and could soon be declared unlawful.

Now, even if it is only for a few days, residents are happy that some normality has been restored to Dale Farm. As the gates were opened yesterday to comply with the terms of the injunction, a line of caravans re-entered the site as “Country road, take me home to the place I belong…” blared from one of the vans. Michelle said, “It feels great to be back. I know it may only be for a few days but you don’t know how good it feels to be home.”

Now we wait. The decision on Friday is crucial.

Today is the day the bailiffs come into Dale Farm. The Travellers’ home is now unrecognisable. Although many residents remain on site, fearing a violent clash between bailiffs and protestors, they have been forced to move the children, elderly, and ill away from danger. There are makeshift barricades throughout the site, slogans (“Lady with Difficulty Breathing Lives Here”, “Save Our Homes”, “Where Will We Go”, “Cancer Patient, Let Me Be”…) painted on fences, portacabins and trailers, and activists lying on mattresses and locked onto cars and gates and blocking the entrance. We are now barricaded inside the site; the protestors are allowing no movement on or off.

Tom Sheridan in his family's caravan on site at Dale Farm. His family was packing up their religious statues ahead of the eviction today. Photograph by Susan Craig-Greene

Amongst this chaos, the real story here is sadly being lost. This is about the people; the Travellers; the community. They are now face-to-face with the reality that they live in a country that does not recognise that their culture is worth preserving. Their whole way of life is under threat. The only option Basildon Council has ever given them is to split up their families and to conform to a settled way of life and live in bricks and mortar.  If this option is unimaginable, the residents are forced into a precarious situation on the road with no real home and no access to basic services. This reality resonated with me as the school bus came this morning as always and four brave children made their way past the scores of media and field of bailiffs to clamber on and head to school for a few hours of normality.

We have now come to the point we hoped we would never reach. We are standing behind barricades, waiting for the bailiffs to make their move.

Shakira Gammell near her yard at Dale Farm. Protestors have painted similar signs on portacabins, fences, caravans all over the site. Photograph by Susan Craig-Greene

Breda asked Marie as we were waiting around this morning, “Are you all right, Marie? Are you ready for them?” Marie answered, “We have no choice now.”

It was great to see hundreds of people turn out to march alongside Dale Farm residents and stand up against Basildon Council’s £18 million eviction campaign. It was important for the residents to see so much support, particularly local support, as they often believe that all local people think like Len Gridley. Jean excitedly rang her mum (who was too ill to take part) in disbelief and proudly told her that “millions” had turned up to march with them.

As we passed the health centre, church and school that the Travellers attend on our way to Dale Farm, it really resonated how deeply entrenched in the local community they have become over the past 10 years.  At the end of the march, MEP Richard Howitt summed it up in his speech to the residents when he said, “what is happening here is not decent. Throwing people out of somewhere when they have nowhere else to go is not decent”.

The end is drawing uncomfortably near.

Are you listening, Basildon Council? It is certainly not too late for you to decide on the peaceful and logical solution that makes sense for Dale Farm and for local settled residents.  The Homes and Communities Agency officially stated to MEP Howitt, “We are willing to place any of our land in Basildon at the Council’s designation as Gypsy and Traveller sites…We are willing to identify and invest capital to establish pitches on such land…” It is unjustifiable for you to ignore this offer, spend £18 million of taxpayers’ money unnecessarily and make a community homeless in the process.

The children of Dale Farm returned to school, today, to begin what could be their last two weeks in formal education.  After the residents had received their 28-day notice letters, I was sitting in Nora Sheridan’s trailer having a cup of tea when two women from the Travellers’ Education Service came by and handed her a laminated card. They explained that they will help her to place her children in a new school, and that she should give them a ring after the eviction once she has settled somewhere. She didn’t get a straight answer when she asked how this will work if she is forced onto the road and not allowed to stay in any one place for more than a few days or weeks at best. The reality is, as all of these Travellers have experienced in the past, there is no way for the children to get any sort of consistent schooling under these circumstances. Many of these children will never go to school again. Why has this not been considered by anyone throughout this process?

Jimmy Tom, proudly reading aloud from one of his books to his mother and me. Jimmy Tom will have no access to education if forced onto the road. Photo by Susan Craig-Greene, 2011.

Nora is extremely worried about having to pull her children out of the school they love and to put an end to the significant progress they have been making over the past few years. Six year-old Jimmy Tom, her youngest, who started at Crays Hill Primary School just last year, proudly gets out his books every time I come round and demonstrates how well he can read. It is amazing how fluent he is after just one year. He couldn’t wait to go back to school today.

Margaret Quilligan is devastated that she will soon have to take her six year-old son with Down’s syndrome, Dan, out of his special needs school in Basildon after the two years it took to secure him a place there. She cries as she explains that Dan had finally settled in there, made friends with the local children and eagerly waits for the bus each day. How can she possibly find him an appropriate place if on the road?

These children want to go to school and their parents want to send them. This is remarkable progress, considering the vast majority of parents do not read or write at all.  Surely, the UK government owes Jimmy Tom, Dan and the rest of the children an explanation, as to why their rights are not being considered (specifically the Article 28 right to education under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) and why it is endorsing and funding this eviction and putting them in a position where access to education is virtually impossible.

After all local taxi companies refused to come to the Traveller site on Oak Lane on Wednesday morning (except the Crays Hill School bus driver), eight women from Dale Farm and I endured a long journey on a protestor’s hippy bus to hear the tragic news that they had reached the end of the road at the High Court in London.  The 25 Traveller women present at the hearing were bewildered and said that the proceedings and judgment “might as well have been in a foreign language”.  I explained that they had been refused their final appeal to access an independent tribunal to consider their personal circumstances and human rights before Basildon evicts them from the land they own. The Court upheld previous rulings that stated that although there will undoubtedly be an interference with their Article 8 human rights if they are evicted, this is proportionate and justified in order to protect the greenbelt and traffic regulations.  On the solemn journey home after the hearing, Margaret could not understand how “they think more of a former scrapyard and traffic than the human rights of our families.” We were all left speechless.

Mary Flynn, praying with her family at Dale Farm, 2011. Photo by Susan Craig-Greene. Mary Flynn's case was the subject of the hearing in the High Court last week. The judge will not reopen the case but was "concerned" about her deteriorating health and asked Basildon Council to answer to this. Many of other Dale Farm residents have also had significant changes to the health in recent months.

Tragically, last minute pleas from religious leaders, the UN, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International for the UK government to consider the realities and human rights implications of this eviction have fallen on deaf ears. The UK government is ignoring its obligations under international law and fully supports Basildon Council’s £18 million eviction campaign that will make an entire community homeless and vulnerable and will offer no long-term solution to anyone’s problems.

In the UK, planning law is king.

Today officially marks 28 days until the final deadline Basildon Council has given the Travellers to leave their homes and community behind.

It has been a busy week at Dale Farm. Not only do there seem to be members of the media swarming the site at all times, but there have been several noteworthy meetings. On Tuesday, the planning application for a site in Laindon that would be able to accommodate some of the residents was refused after 1200 local residents launched a protest against it. The Planning and Development Control Committee also met to consider the personal circumstances of 8 of the most vulnerable residents.   Even after looking closely at the reality facing individuals with severe illnesses and special needs, they voted again overwhelmingly to not make any exceptions and to go ahead with the eviction. (See BBC article.)

This was generally the message at the 2 subsequent meetings we had with Basildon Council this week. I welcome the fact that Essex Police and key members of the team at the council came onto the site and met with Candy Sheridan and Ann Kobayashi and myself in the newly established office.  It was a breakthrough, in many respects, and it is important to keep the lines of communication open. The main topic on my and the Travellers’ minds, however, is the only topic that cannot be discussed at these meetings; finding an alternative solution to this eviction.

Similarly, today, Candy and I met with Homelessness Officers at Basildon Council offices to attempt to work together to progress the Travellers’ homeless applications. Again, this was very useful from an administrative and communication point of view, but the reality is that, even in the best case scenario for the Travellers, at the end of this process they will be offered culturally unsuitable accommodation.

The clock is ticking for the Travellers at Dale Farm and it is unimaginably devastating for me to realise that, in 28 days’ time, this community could be torn apart and gone forever.