October 27, 2008, Basildon, UK: The Dale Farm Travellers are asking for letters of support as the Basildon District Council prepares to reconsider options for the settlement at a Nov. 11 meeting.

The Council voted twice, in 2005 and 2007, to evict the Travellers, claiming they are living illegally and without planning permission at Dale Farm. Those eviction orders were halted in May by Judge Andrew Collins of the British High Court. The judge ordered the Council to find alternative land where the Travellers could live. The Council has appealed his ruling, and a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 5 in the Court of Appeals.

The Advocacy Project (AP) has worked with the Dale Farm Housing Association since 2005, and supported the Travellers in their struggle against eviction.

Grattan Puxon, secretary of the Dale Farm Housing Association, said the community is currently collecting letters from schools, doctors, hospitals and social workers, to be submitted to the Council’s Development Control Committee. The letters are intended to support the Traveller’s contention that eviction without the identification of an alternative site will result in disaster for many residents.

“We must show that there is a list of needs which cannot be met on the roadside,” Mr Puxon said.

The Travellers say the Council’s current eviction plan would cost nearly 2 million pounds and result in the displacement of 90 families and the destruction of 132 chalets, mobile-homes and caravans. Mr Puxon said it would endanger several sick people, end the home care and medical supervision of many others, and interrupt the education of some 60 children now in primary school. Eviction would also mean the closure of the Saint Christopher’s Centre, an educational building that houses a youth club and prayer meetings.

Saint Christopher’s was granted an interim injunction Oct. 4 that staves off demolition of the Centre until a judicial review of the Council’s decision can be held in the British High Court.