CONSTANT THREAT AT DALE FARM

The residents of Dale Farm in Basildon are living on a knife edge facing forceful eviction from their homes at any time, as the council plan to clear the whole site.

The 1,000 or so Romani Gypsy families have been building their community, near Billericay in Essex, since the 70s and have been fighting for the legal right to remain on the site for over seven years. But, after the Lord’s recently refused to hear their appeal case, eviction is now almost certainly on the cards.

Constant & Co, the unscrupulous, violent ‘gypsy eviction specialist’ bailiffs (see SchNEWS 669), are expected to carry out the eviction. It would be the biggest clearing operation of a community from their homes in the UK, at an expected cost of three million pounds. Gypsy Council president Richard Sheridan commented, “Even now the council could buy land for an alternate site for half the money being spent on bulldozing our homes. The eviction plan makes no sense except to racists.”

The Government’s Health & Safety Executive has said if bailiffs attempt to bring heavy machinery onto Dale Farm while children are still present they will be committing an extreme breach of health and safety law. An HSE official told SchNEWS, “If you tell us bulldozers have arrived on your property with kids around, we’ll phone the agents and the council right away and send someone down if need be.”

In August, residents and supporters protested outside Basildon town hall and presented a legal memorandum (supported by International Human Rights NGO Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions) showing how the eviction contravenes international human rights law and asking Basildon council to seek out other alternatives.

The only legal avenue now left is an appeal to the human rights court in Strasbourg, but this could take two years - time which Dale Farm residents don’t appear to have.

Although Basildon council is required to provide land for travellers by 2011, the council has stated they will not be reserved for homeless Dale Farm families. Alternative places to live are not even being discussed  in the council’s so-called engagement talks with Dale Farm representatives.

The threat of eviction coincides with the launch of ‘World Zero Evictions Days’, calling for a new Urban Social Pact demanding an end to evictions and increased funding for housing, and the UN Habitat day. Richard Sheridan said, ‘We’re flying the flag of the United Nations over Dale Farm in solidarity with Roma across Europe, who, like us, are being victimized, attacked and driven from their homes’.

* Email dale.farm@btinternet.com

* World Zero Evictions info at www.habitants.org