Council requests personal information from Oak Lane Travellers - Essex

From Basildon Borough Council

Process servers acting on behalf of Basildon Council have today (Friday 26 October) issued a letter and questionnaire requesting personal circumstances from Travellers living illegally in Oak Lane.

The documents were served to 18 caravans this morning and reminded Travellers that they are breaking criminal law by continuing to live along the roadside and ask for individual information about their wellbeing, and any education and housing needs. This information will remain strictly confidential.

Cllr Tony Ball, leader of the council, says: “We remain as committed as ever to upholding the law and this is the next step in the process to ensure compliance with the enforcement notices that we served in July and expired on 29 September.

“I am extremely disappointed but not surprised that the Travellers have chosen to ignore the notices so far, but today has made it clear that we are committed to going through the correct process to ensure the law is upheld and these breaches are dealt with.

“The information that we have requested will allow us to take into account personal circumstances before we decide on any future enforcement action in this area.”