Basildon names week for clearance of Dale Farm Travellers site

Basildon Council is to start work on clearing the Traveller site at Dale Farm in Essex in the week commencing 19 September.

The announcement comes just days after lawyers representing the Travellers failed in a High Court bid to halt the evictions.

Basildon had issued 28-day notices requiring the Travellers to vacate the land by 31 August.

The council has now given  letters to those living at the illegal site, telling them that they had not complied with enforcement notices. Basildon also called on them to make homelessness applications as a matter of urgency.

Electricity to the site will be cut off during the week beginning 19 September, but water will continue to be supplied until the site is cleared.

The Travellers have recently received support from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Amnesty International. Both called on Basildon to halt the eviction process until alternative, culturally appropriate accommodation could be found.

Cllr Tony Ball, Leader of Basildon Council, insisted that the legal action was a last resort.

He said: “It is with reluctance that we have been forced to take direct action to clear the site. We have sought a negotiated settlement and exhausted the legal system for almost ten years. In that time the travellers have refused to budge leaving us with no alternative to the action we are now about to take.

“Dale Farm has been illegally developed on green belt land. By doing this and failing to comply with various enforcement notices over a period of years the travellers have broken the law. As the local authority we are duty bound to see that the law is upheld. This is what I also believe the overwhelming majority of the local people expect us to do.”

Cllr Ball said the council's actions did not represent discrimination against Travellers. “They are being fairly treated in the same way as we would any other resident of the local area who built on or developed greenbelt land without permission,” he argued.

“We now have a difficult task which we need to carry out in an orderly and lawful fashion with safety the key priority for both the travellers and those involved in the operation. We still hope the residents of Dale Farm will reconsider their position and use the final two weeks notice period to move off the site peacefully.”

Basildon's Leader also called on supporters of the Travellers who were gathering at Dale Farm to confine themselves to “peaceful and lawful activities”.

According to the council, there are 51 illegal pitches on the site involving 240 people.