Dale Farm: Eviction notices served

Letters from Basildon Council giving 28 days to leave were received by families at Dale Farm on Monday.

More than 400 travellers currently live at the former scrapyard which is on greenbelt land.

About half of the 100 pitches do not have planning permission. Travellers began to set up pitches illegally on greenbelt land in 2001.

The notice requires them to vacate the land otherwise the council will enter the land and remove all portable and fixed structures, hardcore and hard standings from the greenbelt site where breaches of planning law have taken place.

Policing the clearance of what is thought to be the largest traveller site in Europe could cost up to £9.5m.

The first £2.5m in costs are to be met by Essex Police Authority (EPA). The next £2.4m is to be shared equally between the Home Office and Basildon Council.

A further £2.3m in costs will be met by the Home Office alone who will then share the remainder with the EPA.

Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay John Baron earlier said: "I urge the travellers at the illegal Dale Farm site to now move off peacefully, as no one wants to see the misery of a forced eviction.

"If not, the eviction will proceed for it is only fair the law is enforced without exception."

"Today, some 90 families at Dale Farm, the UK's largest Traveller community, were hand-delivered a final notice of eviction giving families until midnight on August 31 to abandon their homes, or face their entire community being bulldozed." says Grattan Puxon, Dale Farm campaigner. "The central government and Basildon Council have set aside over £18m for the eviction battle that could last three weeks.  It will be the biggest clearance of its kind involving the ploughing up of 54 separate plots created on a former scrap-yard purchased by the Travellers ten years ago."

Dale Farm is only a 30 minute train ride from London, and hundreds of people have pledged to join residents in nonviolent resistance to the destruction of Dale Farm. The residents of Dale Farm have encouraged  their supporters to establish a base at Dale Farm, Camp Constant, to resist this eviction and house human rights monitors.  

"Join us on Saturday August 27th and beyond, starting with a weekend of Traveller history & celebration together with practical eviction resistance training." says Grattan. "There will also be training for legal observers and human rights monitors, and a bit of a party on Saturday night.  Sleeping space is available in caravans or you can bring a tent.  The eviction could go ahead right after midnight on August 31st, so we will be staying at Dale Farm before then in preparation."

Please check http://dalefarm.wordpress.com for further updates.

Dale Farm is within easy reach from London Liverpool St. Station. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact/ for directions.

You can sign up to our email bulletins here: http://lists.ucrony.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dalefarm-solidarity

Stay overnight at Dale Farm and Alerts - Urgent call for Support

See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/hrm/ for details.  We also need people to spend the night at Dale Farm to provide around the clock support to the community and resistance to the eviction. We are looking for groups and individuals to pledge to stay overnight.

If you can be on eviction alert, or spend a night at Dale Farm, please sign up here:
https://smsalerts.tachanka.org/dalefarm

Also, please ask your friends to ask their friends to pledge to stay a
night: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170414852985935

Weekend Activity Days

On July 9th and beyon, we will be building defences to resist the eviction, as well as supporting the community and setting up Camp Constant.  We will also hold a meeting there, every Saturday at 1 pm.  For more information, and to check the dates of activity days see http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity

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Photo by Julia C Johnson / http://www.jcjphotographer.com