About 400 Irish Travellers of Dale Farm carried on with life as usual after an eviction deadline of Aug. 31 was not enforced. Now the Travellers are preparing for another eviction deadline: Sept. 19.
The new deadline was first leaked to a local newspaper by a source in Basildon Council, the local entity responsible for the evictions, and was sent to the Travellers in eviction letters a day after the leak.
Police and bailiffs will reportedly begin securing the Dale Farm site starting from Sept. 12 and begin taking down caravans and storing them for collection during the week of September 19th. Electricity will be cut off the week of Sept. 19, but the site will still have running water until it is cleared.
Blockades are also going to be placed on the roads around Dale Farm—something Jake Fulton, a spokesperson for the Dale Farm community, says will constitute a “significant violation of human rights.”
The Travellers are calling for supporters to camp out at Dale Farm beginning on Sept. 12 as a last attempt to stop the impending evictions.
Basildon Council’s leader, Tony Ball, says that if the supporters cared anything for the Travellers, the supporters would encourage the Travellers to leave.
Basildon Council explained on its website that the delay in eviction was to give the Travellers an extra two weeks to move off the site peacefully.
A few days before the new deadline was announced, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held a press conference at the farm to express concern for the welfare of the Travellers.
The community of Irish Travellers is also seeking help from legal observers, which supporters are offering to train. The observers will be there to monitor the forced evictions when they occur.
Dale Farm in southeast England is home to the U.K.’s largest community of Travellers—a group similar to Gypsies and once known locally as “Tinkers.”
For years, the Travellers have been in dispute with the local council over the legality of their settlement. The latest round of the battle was due to come to a head on Aug. 31, when the council said it would bulldoze all illegal dwellings.
According to local authorities, half of the land at Dale Farm, which the community lives on, is designated as greenbelt land and cannot be used for residential purposes. The land can only be used for activities like horse rearing, agriculture, and renting vegetable gardens.
Fulton said Dale Farm residents are doing trench work and building up camp centres in the meantime. He confirmed on Sept. 2 that the bulldozers and bailiffs, which had been predicted to arrive, never showed up.
The new deadline was first leaked to a local newspaper by a source in Basildon Council, the local entity responsible for the evictions, and was sent to the Travellers in eviction letters a day after the leak.
Police and bailiffs will reportedly begin securing the Dale Farm site starting from Sept. 12 and begin taking down caravans and storing them for collection during the week of September 19th. Electricity will be cut off the week of Sept. 19, but the site will still have running water until it is cleared.
Blockades are also going to be placed on the roads around Dale Farm—something Jake Fulton, a spokesperson for the Dale Farm community, says will constitute a “significant violation of human rights.”
The Travellers are calling for supporters to camp out at Dale Farm beginning on Sept. 12 as a last attempt to stop the impending evictions.
Basildon Council’s leader, Tony Ball, says that if the supporters cared anything for the Travellers, the supporters would encourage the Travellers to leave.
Basildon Council explained on its website that the delay in eviction was to give the Travellers an extra two weeks to move off the site peacefully.
A few days before the new deadline was announced, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held a press conference at the farm to express concern for the welfare of the Travellers.
The community of Irish Travellers is also seeking help from legal observers, which supporters are offering to train. The observers will be there to monitor the forced evictions when they occur.
Dale Farm in southeast England is home to the U.K.’s largest community of Travellers—a group similar to Gypsies and once known locally as “Tinkers.”
For years, the Travellers have been in dispute with the local council over the legality of their settlement. The latest round of the battle was due to come to a head on Aug. 31, when the council said it would bulldoze all illegal dwellings.
According to local authorities, half of the land at Dale Farm, which the community lives on, is designated as greenbelt land and cannot be used for residential purposes. The land can only be used for activities like horse rearing, agriculture, and renting vegetable gardens.
Fulton said Dale Farm residents are doing trench work and building up camp centres in the meantime. He confirmed on Sept. 2 that the bulldozers and bailiffs, which had been predicted to arrive, never showed up.
Although the Travellers continue with their regular life, they aren’t relaxed. “A lot of them are fairly upset,” said Fulton.
Dale Farm’s website describes the Travellers as “increasingly sleepless and stressed but undefeated” by the situation.
Pressure has been placed on the Basildon Council to provide the Travellers with alternative places to go.
The Travellers now say that they would be willing to move if an alternate site with planning permission was provided. They reject the council’s previous offer of “bricks and mortar” housing, however, because of a cultural preference for trailers and small chalets.
Traveller representatives have also offered to sell the land above market value, but Ball thought it was unacceptable to allow the Travellers to profit from breaking the law, according to a statement by Ball.
But to Mary Walsh, a Dale Farm Traveller who has lived in a Dale Farm trailer for two years with her seven children, it is acceptable.
“We bought and paid for this land. This is our own land,” Walsh said in a phone interview.
The U.N., whose special rapporteur on housing previously wrote a statement to the U.K. government on the issue, released a stronger statement on Sept. 1, condemning the eviction. The statement came from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Ball replied to the statement that any member of the local community who developed or built on greenbelt land without permission would be treated the same, regardless of lifestyle or background.
Basildon Council originally gave the Travellers a 28-day eviction notice, but it has since been extended to over two months after concerns were raised over the number of sick people and young children on the site.
Dale Farm’s website describes the Travellers as “increasingly sleepless and stressed but undefeated” by the situation.
Pressure has been placed on the Basildon Council to provide the Travellers with alternative places to go.
The Travellers now say that they would be willing to move if an alternate site with planning permission was provided. They reject the council’s previous offer of “bricks and mortar” housing, however, because of a cultural preference for trailers and small chalets.
Traveller representatives have also offered to sell the land above market value, but Ball thought it was unacceptable to allow the Travellers to profit from breaking the law, according to a statement by Ball.
But to Mary Walsh, a Dale Farm Traveller who has lived in a Dale Farm trailer for two years with her seven children, it is acceptable.
“We bought and paid for this land. This is our own land,” Walsh said in a phone interview.
The U.N., whose special rapporteur on housing previously wrote a statement to the U.K. government on the issue, released a stronger statement on Sept. 1, condemning the eviction. The statement came from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Ball replied to the statement that any member of the local community who developed or built on greenbelt land without permission would be treated the same, regardless of lifestyle or background.
Basildon Council originally gave the Travellers a 28-day eviction notice, but it has since been extended to over two months after concerns were raised over the number of sick people and young children on the site.
