Travellers lose appeal over Essex site
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Gypsies and Travellers living on one the country’s largest unauthorised sites have lost their battle against eviction.
The site at Dale Farm, in Basildon, Essex, houses more than 1,000 people, and has been the subject of ongoing legal battles.
Travellers were given temporary leave to stay on the land by the High Court after the council tried to evict them, but the decision was overturned on appeal in January. This week, Travellers who had fought to stay on the site were told by law lords that the council had acted lawfully.
A spokesman for the council said: ‘Now that all the legal objections and their right to challenge have been exhausted, it’s time to sit down and talk to them about the most suitable way of clearing that site.’
He added that the council would not be providing any alternative sites, despite an East of England Regional Assembly assessment that more are needed in the Basildon area.
‘We cannot provide additional sites on top of the 100 we already do, our position is that we don’t have any suitable sites that we can provide and it’s about time other councils surrounding us that don’t provide any sites started helping,’ he said.
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Readers' comments (1)
Harry | 20/05/2009 11:33 am
I think its about time they should never have been allowed to saty in the first place the original site peole who had permission some were ousted out by the Irish ones that came and had no right being there in the first place as many had places back in Ireland its just a money making ploy to get cheap ag land and build and then resell at a later date its disgusting they have been there this long.
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