Travellers at Dale Farm Offered Housing Before Clear Out Deadline - Essex

From Visit Basildon

Travellers living illegally along the roadside near Dale Farm will continue to be offered housing by Basildon Borough Council, despite a clear refusal to live in bricks-and-mortar accommodation.

Nineteen caravans parked on the road leading to Dale Farm were served enforcement notices by the council at the end of July.

​An application by traveller representatives to a Government planning inspector to appeal the notices failed because they could not show Traveller ownership of the land or a right to be there.

They have until Saturday to leave the road in Crays Hill.

The planning inspector's decision paves the way for more enforcement action, but council leader Tony Ball admits that could be "some months" away as the council looks to fulfil its temporary accommodation "duty" to the Travellers.

The Gazette can reveal the authority made 38 offers of bricks-and-mortar accommodation to travellers at Dale Farm prior to last October's eviction, but none were accepted.

No more offers of housing have been made since November.

Mr Ball insists the council must offer brick homes to Travellers in need, but said their engagement with the council in supplying the necessary information had been "poor".

"We need to find out who is there, their housing needs and their personal circumstances. We have a duty to protect the vulnerable," said Mr Ball.

"The information we have is it's still a varying amount of caravans along the road, it changes daily if not weekly, it's different people who come and go."

Enforcement options available to the council include direct action by bringing in bailiffs and the use of court injunctions.

Mr Ball said the authority has not yet decided upon which course of action to pursue.

"It's not going to be ten years like Dale Farm, but it could be – because the Travellers can appeal – still some months.

"Then we could be in the hands of the courts," said Mr Ball.

The Environment Agency has been carrying out contamination tests at Dale Farm to look for pollutants such as asbestos, which Traveller campaigners claim was unearthed during the £7.2 million site clearance.

The agency is due to publish a report in October.

Traveller campaigner Stuart Carruthers said the next course of action is one of discourse with the council.

"We're looking to talk to the council over what to do," he said. "There is nowhere to put the Travellers at the moment."

"We're waiting on the Environment Agency report, which I think is going to be the most important part of it.

"I can't see an eviction happening immediately. What we're trying to do is come to a solution with the council, otherwise we get faced with the same problem as last time."

Quotes from Thisistotalessex