The Dale Farm dump: Infamous Travellers' site is blighted by fly-tippers a year on from police-backed eviction of 80 families

From the Daily Mail

After more than £7million was spent evicting Travellers from Dale Farm in Essex, the site was supposed to be turned back into greenbelt fields.

But one year on council bosses have failed to uphold their pledge, leaving the six-acre empty space a dumping ground for fly-tippers.

Rotten food, mounds of rubble and stained furniture now cover what used to be Europe's largest illegal Travellers' site.

Burnt out sofas, broken tables, used mattresses and industrial waste of all shapes and sizes lie scattered on the barren wasteland.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the controversial clearance of hundreds of travellers from the site near Crays Hill in Essex, following a bitter decade-long legal row.

More than 300 riot police and hundreds more bailiffs dramatically swept onto the former scrapyard during an early morning operation that led to bloody and violent confrontations.

The anticipated campaign to fight the eviction, which some feared could last months, was all over within 36 hours as the activists who had pledged to support the Travellers 'to the death' gave up their campaign and walked from the site.

Basildon Council, which led the £7.1million eviction, pledged to uphold planning law by removing 80 families from illegal plots and returning the land back to greenbelt fields.

But photographs captured in recent days have revealed that the clear-up of Dale Farm has failed to happen - with the abandoned site overrun with rubbish from fly-tippers.

Rotten, smelling rubbish is piled up to head-height and mounds of rubble have been dumped on the land. Sofas lie in the mud alongside broken, rusting, washing machines.

Aerial photos taken from the air this week revealed the shocking lack of progress made since police and bailiffs employed by the council stormed onto Dale Farm, supported by hundreds of riot police from forces across the country in October last year.

Officials from the Environment Agency have been carrying out tests on the soil amid concerns that the land is toxic and a report is expected within weeks.

Residents, who had hoped and prayed for the day the Travellers would be forced to leave their illegal pitches, have been left feeling let-down by the situation left behind.

Len Gridley, 53, the most outspoken of the home owners affected by the continued occupation, said: 'There have not been any positives to come out of this for me - it has just been a joke - the Travellers are just yards away and now the site is over run with rats and dumped rubbish.'

The property developer, whose garden backs onto the site, is considering legal action against Basildon Council for the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the value of his property.

He fumed: 'I have no sympathy for the council - they should have gone in there as soon as it was clear and put it back to greenbelt land as they promised they would - it is as simple as that.

'Instead, they have achieved nothing in the past year.

'I feel that the whole thing has been a huge waste of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money and you have to wonder why it even happened because the Travellers are now just a bit further down the road and still living illegally.'

Many of the Travellers who left Dale Farm are still living illegally on Oak Lane just yards from where the eviction took place.

Noreen Sheridan, 47, slammed Basildon Council for spending millions of taxpayers’ money on the eviction then allowing it to become a 'toxic dumping ground'.

The single mother had lived at Dale Farm for years before last October’s costly eviction but has since moved just yards away to a one-bedroom trailer on the side of a small lane leading into the illegal site.

She said: 'They have spent £7m and what for? We’re still here but now we have no toilets, no showers, no electric. This place looks like something you see in that film, Slumdog Millionaire, not a green belt site.

'We’re scared to sleep at night ‘cause people come in the middle of the night to tip their rubbish where we used to live.

'The site’s become a toxic dumping ground which is dangerous for our little kids.

'They think it’s a playground but there’s asbestos and everything down there so we have to try to keep them out.

'The whole eviction has been an utter shambles. It’s 11 years on and we’re no further on.'

Just last week she rushed to hospital after suffering a severe asthma attack which she blamed on stress caused by the threat of a new eviction from the lane.

Looking back at the eviction, she added: 'On the day there were woman and children running and screaming everywhere. It was like something out of the Titanic as everyone was panicking.

'I managed to get out before the riot police started attacking our homes. I was one of the lucky ones as a lot of people were injured.'

The results of an Environment Agency investigation into potentially dangerous pollutants - including asbestos and engine oil - allegedly dug up by council contractors during the eviction - is expected within the coming weeks.

Basildon Concil spent £4.8million on the clearance although it had budgeted to spend up to £8m had the eviction dragged out into the winter months.

Essex Police splashed out £2.4million on supporting the council.

Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, said: 'At the moment, we know that the site is not something that people would recognise as a green belt site.

'However it must be remembered that the 6.5 acres that made up the illegal settlement remains in the ownership of the Travellers and the state of the site is their responsibility at the current time. The council simply does not have the legal right to enter the land.

'Since the site was cleared in November 2011, the council has been working tirelessly to deal with the continued breaking of planning and civil law on Oak Lane. I am clear that this is the right thing to do, just as clearing Dale Farm was the right thing to do.

'Let me be clear. Every single issue in the Oak Lane area at the moment has its origins in the persistent law-breaking of the Traveller community over the last ten years.

'But let me also make it clear that we are dealing with these issues and we are working through the legal and planning process which does take time and has to be done step by step.'