Horror of Dale Farm still hurts ...Travellers are treated better here

GRATTAN Puxon watched the dramatic Dale Farm evictions from the front line.

The campaigner, who lives in John Harper Street, Colchester, stood beside activists and members of the travelling community and witnessed the illegal pitches being dismantled. He describes the actions of police and bailiffs as “illegal over-enforcement”.

Mr Puxon, 72, says the experience left him exhausted. But he is far from finished in his mission to find the evicted residents a new place to live. On Tuesday, he was at Basildon Council for a public inquiry which is considering the council’s decision to refuse planning permission for 12 plots.

The hearing follows last month’s clearance of the six-acre site in Crays Hill after a decade-long row over unauthorised plots. The operation saw violent clashes between police and protesters.

Mr Puxon said: “I was shaken for several days after.
“It was shattering, both physically and mentally – the biggest eviction in the UK’s history. “We never wanted to fight the police. It was supposed to be a civil matter between us, the council and the bailiffs.“But they came flying in with tasers aiming everywhere. There is a clear case of over-enforcement.”

Mr Puxon claims a deal to meet council officers outside the fences on the day of the eviction to negotiate the police operation was never honoured.

He said: “The people at Dale Farm were always willing to move, but needed a legal place to move to.
“The eviction amounts to ethnic cleansing. There has been damage dealt to the legal properties there. The land has been completely raked up.”