Plans for new pitches at cleared Dale Farm

TRAVELLERS are submitting plans for nine new caravan pitches on the cleared Dale Farm site.

The move, which could lead to a fresh round of legal appeals if refused, comes as Basildon Council is set to take court action against the owners of a small number of caravans which were pulled back on to Dale Farm on Thursday.

Crays Hill residents spoke of their dismay at the prospect of more appeals, as the council still tries to get on top of overcrowding problems on the legal site.

David McPherson-Davis, a Ramsden Crays parish councillor, said: “I don’t see how this can go back to an appeal. It has been all the way to the High Court and they keep losing.

“This needs sorting because there is a real problem now with rubbish being dumped on the old site.”

Campaigners Grattan Puxon and Stuart Hardwicke-Carruthers confirmed the new pitches would be on the site of the former scrapyard at Dale Farm, in its north-eastern corner.

The hardstanding and fences for the pitches are already in place because of the High Court ruling before the eviction, which specified what the council was legally able to demolish.

Mr Puxon said: “The hardstanding there, unlike that on some 40 other plots, has not been dug up.”

He said together with four other pitches at Dale Farm the council was unable to clear, there would be room for all the families currently breaching occupancy levels on the legal site and in Oak Lane.

Council leader Tony Ball said: “The application would be smaller, so it would have to be considered in the usual manner and we can’t pre-empt it. But our views on the green belt are well known.”