Dale Farm Eviction.

I've tried to avoid posting on this subject because generally travellers can take care of the themselves. However the hypocrisy of the situation is astounding.

Back in 1968 the UK government passed a law that made it a legal requirement for local district councils to provide sites for Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsies to set up camp. So in 1970 the Labour controlled Basildon District Council (BDC) gave planning permission for a 45 plot camp on the site of a disused scrap metal yard. This became known as Dale Farm. In 1994 the infamous Criminal Justice and Police Act 1994 removed this requirement so many traveller sites disappeared across the UK.

This shortage of housing prompted some of the travellers in the South of England to group together and purchase the land adjacent to Dale Farm in order to expand it by another 53 plots. After buying the land legally the travellers developed it by laying tarmac road ways, hardcourt bases for caravans and building permanent utility buildings to be used as toilet/shower blocks. They didn't have planning permission for this development which is a little bit naughty. However if they hadn't built and plumbed in the utility buildings they wouldn't have needed planning permission. Besides before the travellers brought the land it was being used as a scrap metal yard and most people would consider changing the use of the land from an industrial site to a residential site an improvement.

In 2003 the owners of Dale Farm began the process of applying for retrospective planning permission. They thought this would be easy because BDC had given the previous, non-traveller, owner of the land permission to use it as a dirty and noisy scrap yard between 1978 and 2001. The now Conservative controlled BDC responded by, in my opinion, wrongly re-classifying the land as protected Greenbelt land. Since then BDC have been campaigning to have the entire 98 plot site which is home to around 1000 people evicted on the grounds of environmental protection and an eviction order was issued in 2005. The argument is that if BDC allowed travellers to build where they like without planning permission then Britain's beautiful countryside would soon be destroyed.

A final appeal against the eviction order was denied by the Law Lords in July 2009 and since then BDC have being trying to find bailiffs brave enough to attempt the eviction. While these final preparations for eviction were being made Britain's new ConDem coalition government were elected on a platform of "Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility." One of the first policies announced by the Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles Department for Communities and Local Government was changes to the local planning legislation. Under the new policy landowners would no longer need planning permission to build on land they owned even if it is classed as protected Greenbelt. The message from the Conservative Party then seems quite clear; "Anyone can build anything they like on Greenbelt land except for members of this specific ethnic group. They're not welcome here."

So in true Big Brother fashion if you think the residents of Dale Farm should stay telephone, email or write to the Chief Executive of Basildon District Council at;

Mr Bala Mahendran,
Basildon Centre,
St Martain's Square,
SS14 - 1DL.
bala.mahendran@basildon.gov.uk
0126 853 3333.

And tell him. Likewise if you think the residents of Dale Farm should be evicted also contact Mr Mahendran and let him know.