Council which spent £7million evicting Travellers from Dale Farm agree to new camp just 800 yards away - Essex

From the Daily Mail

A council which spent more than £7 million clearing the Dale Farm Travellers' camp has come under fire after it gave the green light for a new site just across the road.

Basildon Council became embroiled in a ten-year legal battle back in 2001 after allowing Travellers to illegally expand a former scrap yard site in Crays Hill, Essex.

But after spending millions on a bitter full-scale eviction of the site in October 2011, councillors have now approved a new Traveller site which lies less than 800 yards away.

The authority has defended its actions today, denying the Travellers have been rewarded for their unlawful actions.

Neighbour Len Gridley, 53, who has lived opposite the Dale Farm site for more than 10 years, slammed the decision.

He said: 'The numbers just don't add up.

They are talking about building a 15-pitch site when everybody knows that there are already more than 20 touring caravans living in the road leading up to Dale Farm as well as other sites nearby.

'The council are just moving the problem rather than solving it.

'They will not accept that they messed up the eviction and are now moving the problem down the road.

'Dale Farm is in a worse condition now than when the Travellers ever lived there illegally.'

Travellers continue to live illegally in a lane leading into the six-acre Dale Farm site a full 15 months after the eviction.

An Environment Agency report into dangerous contaminants - including asbestos and engine oil - at Dale Farm is expected in the coming months.

Approved plans for a new Traveller site include 15 double caravan pitches at a Government-owned site on scrub land just less than half a mile away, in Gardiners Lane South, in Basildon.

The plans, which were approved by Basildon Council cabinet on Thursday, could house up to 80 Travellers who currently live in touring caravans at the entrance to the illegal site.

Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, said: 'I would like to reiterate that this site is not a solution to the Oak Lane roadside issue where Travellers are still living illegally as places will be allocated on local need.

'We are not here to reward people for acting unlawfully.

'We have always been committed to working with the Gypsy and Traveller community to find suitable places for them to live, as we do with all sections of the community.

'It's important we work in partnership with the Home and Communities Agency (HCA) and the developer to ensure this site is developed properly and pitches are allocated on a need basis.

'We want to lease this land from the HCA and then sublease to Home Space Sustainable Accommodation (HSSA) which will ensure we maintain control of the site.'

see also: ITV - New Travellers site planned near Dale Farm

The Telegraph - Council's answer to Dale Farm... another site just down the road