Dale Farm Latest News, update

[legalRomany]

tudents help travellers in eviction fight
2:10pm Monday 16th November 2009
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By ###### Austin »

TEN university students have been drafted in by travellers to help their fight against eviction.

The first-year pupils, from the Human Rights Centre, at Essex University, in Colchester, will assist traveller families in their ongoing legal battles.

Campaigner Grattan Puxon said: “They are helping out with challenges against homeless applications being made by the families.

“So far, two families are being offered bricks and mortar accommodation, but they want to challenge this on grounds it is against their culture.”

The move comes as the Government delivered the news it would not be able to find a site for travellers outside Basildon.

MP ###### Baron and the council’s leader, Tony Ball, met Communities Minister Shahid Malik MP in July, to thrash out how to avoid the eviction.

It was hoped the Government would come back with a suitable site, and therefore prevent any eviction at Dale Farm, in Crays Hill. But it hasn’t happened.

Mr Baron accused ministers of refusing to assist Basildon Council, after his request fell on deaf ears.

He said: “The Government has failed abysmally to go the extra mile.

“It has washed its hands of this issue, but not washed away its responsibility.

“The Government has stated Basildon Council must enforce planning law. Yet it will not help find Government land outside the district for travellers to move to.

“Government inaction will not delay the council’s plans to evict. If there is a forced eviction because the travellers do not move on, then the Government, as well as the travellers, is to blame.”

Travellers have vowed to resist attempts to move them. On December 10, when the council votes on one of two bailiff firms it will hire for the eviction, they will protest outside the council offices.source echo

[legalRomany]

No help to rehome Travellers
Thursday, 19 November 2009

By Pat Jones
BASILDON Council will get no government help to relocate the travellers it intends to evict.

According the Communities Minister, Shahid Malik, the authority has sole responsibility for finding new sites for the families it wants to move from Dale Farm, Crays Hill.

He made his views known in a letter to Billericay MP ###### Baron, who had asked for his help to find a temporary or permanent site, outside the district, large enough for the travellers to move to.

Mr Malik, who met the MP at Dale Farm in July, also points out the council is ‘required to identify an additional 62 pitches for Gypsies and Travellers’.

Mr Baron slammed the response.

He said: “The government has a moral responsibility to help, given it stopped the council taking action in 2003, when the matter would have been easier to handle.

“Government wants Basildon to enforce planning law, yet will not help find an alternative site.”

Mr Baron also believes the Travellers would be more likely to move peacefully if sites were found.

“The government has washed its hands of this issue, but not washed away its responsibility,” he added.

The Housing and Communities Agency has land holdings in Basildon and it might be worth discussing their ‘potential to deliver temporary or permanent accommodation which might be suitable for Traveller sites’.

• Basildon Council is disputing the need for 62 extra traveller pitches in the district.
Email: basildon@yellowad.co.uk




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