Guardian
The Cosmic Force
Dale Farm Repels Eviction - September 19, 2011 - Ken O'Keefe - TJP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fna-b6dCofU
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http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/fiasco-down-on-eviction-farm-1.1141233
Fiasco down on eviction farm
September 20 2011 at 12:52pm
By Paul Harris and Andrew Levy
Comment on this story
iol pic wld dale farm eviction
Reuters
Activists celebrate as they stand on barricades at the Dale Farm traveller site, near Billericay in southern England.
It may have been the travellers’ last stand, but it was no one’s finest hour.
In scenes bordering on farce, the eviction of Dale Farm began with an all-day stand-off and ended with yet another legal hitch in a local council’s efforts to clear Europe’s largest illegal site.
On one side were protesters and travellers insisting they shall not be moved.
On the other, bailiffs and a small platoon of blue-uniformed officials spouting health and safety concerns through a loudhailer that didn’t work.
But this long-awaited first stage in the Battle of Basildon was abruptly halted yesterday when a judge sitting 50 miles away granted a last-gasp injunction to delay further action.
Now the operation to clear the site has been put on hold until at least the end of the week after Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart ruled at the High Court in London that the proposed measures “may go further” than the terms of the enforcement notices.
Basildon Council was thrown into disarray last night as its lawyers scrambled to read through the injunction. Leader Tony Ball hurriedly left a television interview for an urgent briefing.
He didn’t explain the ruling when he returned to give a brief statement an hour later but said he was “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by the decision.
He added: “The motion was put forward to the High Court without notice, which meant the judge only had one side of the story and therefore has given the council until Friday to go back to the High Court to make its argument.
“I am absolutely clear that, in this issue
on Friday, the court will find in the council’s favour and the clearance will be able to continue.”
The latest twist came as it was revealed that the travellers on the site at Crays Hill in Essex have been offered a total of 38 local authority homes to move from the site. Basildon Council has suggested a variety of temporary flats and houses over the past six months in an effort to resolve the decade-long stand-off.
But they were turned down for reasons including because they smelled of smoke or were made of bricks and mortar, “contravening” the travellers’ desire to spend their life on the road.
A council spokesman said yesterday’s injunction provided a “blanket ban against the removal of any and all property” from the illegal camp.
A source later said they believed it might refer to the High Court order earlier this year which stated the eviction could go ahead and the concrete driveways, “hard standings”, the caravans stand on could be removed. The source added they understood this failed to refer to fences and some other structures on the hard-standings, creating a legal loophole.
News of the injunction brought whoops of delight from travellers and supporters. One, who gave her name as Mary, said: “Thank God for British justice.” The travellers and troublemakers had manned the ramparts of their barricade from before dawn as police, the local council and bailiffs set up camp beside the main entrance.
Fifty-one plots containing homes built without planning permission are set to be cleared from the six-acre site, along with their remaining residents, in an operation which could cost £18 million.
Like opposing armies, the two sides emerged into daylight in different uniforms - the authorities a mixture of orange, yellow and blue, versus the travellers’ preference for track-suits. For hours yesterday they could be seen making their separate preparations for war.
And every sign was that this is going to be a long campaign.
If anyone needed confirmation, it came with the arrival of a stout traveller humping a consignment of supplies towards the gate. About 200 rolls of toilet paper in jumbo packs were pushed through a gap in the barricade to eager waiting hands. The delivery was followed by supplies of high carbohydrate and energy foods such as crisps, peanuts and Bourbon Creams.
Nearby, a traveller in a distinctive white homburg was holding court with reporters. “Don’t give them your name, Eamonn,” a woman shouted from behind. One traveller who gave his name as Michael added: “We have got to take a stand. If we don’t, this will just carry on with other traveller communities.” Other families complained they had nowhere else to go - an argument weakened by the discovery that many some have luxury homes back in Ireland.
Their resistance, which has received support from the UN, Vanessa Redgrave and the Bishop of Chelmsford, is in defiance of officials who insist they are breaking the law.
A woman dressed as a witch took up position with a walkie-talkie to a lookout platform on the ramparts.
“They’re coming!” someone shouted, and all eyes turned towards a cluster of hard-hatted bailiffs being escorted by police towards the blocked gate. Protesters filled flour bombs and distributed missiles as they advanced, pageant-like, up the main approach.
From here, the platoon leader expressed health and safety concerns about the barricade, straining now under the weight of opposing forces.
A sign on the outside said a woman had secured herself to the gate by a noose - and warned that if it was forced open, she would be killed. Shouts of “racists” drowned out most of the bailiff’s remaining words, and cheers accompanied his retreat.
Had his megaphone been working, the travellers might have heard him saying something about trying to resolve the stand-off swiftly and peacefully. Yesterday, neither outcome looked likely. - Daily Mail
____________________________________________________________________
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/09/21/Reprieved_Travellers_are_warned_they_face_a_bill_for_costs_o/
Reprieved Travellers are warned they face a bill for costs of delay
Residents said they would re-open the barricaded front gate to allow neighbours - who had left in anticipation of the bailiffs' arrival - to return to the site
By Kevin Rawlinson
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Families who celebrated a last-gasp reprieve which prevented their eviction from a Travellers' site at Dale Farm in Essex on Monday have been warned they will be hit with a bill for the costs of the delay, should the temporary injunction be cancelled at a second hearing on Friday.
A High Court judge ordered that the eviction should be put back while the council clarified what it intended to do with each of the 51 illegal pitches on the site. Lawyers for the residents agreed in court to be liable for any costs.
It is thought that a reduced contingent of bailiffs will remain on site, while Basildon Council will have to pay for security teams to patrol the wider area, as well as paying its own legal costs. A source said council officials were pessimistic about their chances of recouping costs from the Travellers but insisted they would certainly pursue them through the courts for the money.
Supporters of the Dale Farm residents claimed the council is spending up to £1.2m per day to keep its operation running, but a council spokesman said he "did not recognise that figure".
"There is no way the residents will be able to pay out the kinds of sums that are likely to be demanded," said a spokesman for the supporters camped at Dale Farm.
He added: "For [the council] to attempt to blame the residents is just absurd, when the reason the injunction was granted was because they were unclear on what they were going to do once they got on to Dale Farm. It is because of their overzealous attempt to bulldoze the entire site that we are having this delay."
The council leader, Tony Ball, said he was frustrated by the delay but confident that the ruling would be overturned once the authority was given an opportunity to present its side of the story to the court on Friday.
Residents said yesterday that they would re-open a barricaded front gate to allow any of their neighbours, who had left in anticipation of the bailiffs moving in, to return. They also said they would allow a planning inspector on to the site but insisted that the gate itself, the object of safety concerns, will remain in place.
A leading campaigner, Grattan Puxon, said: "The gate stays, although we will look at building a side gate to allow a council officer access. The remaining issue is what is a touring caravan – which they can remove – and what is a static home, which they can't. There is also an ongoing argument over hard standings laid by the council when it was a scrapyard, which we say should remain."
A spokesman for the council confirmed that it would not seek to clear buildings from that part of the site which was formerly a scrapyard, but Mr Ball called on residents to "discourage any further protest from non-Dale Farm residents and to dismantle the barricades".
Council officials delivered documents to residents yesterday, explaining what action it would take during the eviction and when it was planned. A spokesman said that, should the injunction be overturned, bailiffs could move in as early as Saturday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fna-b6dCofU
___________________________________________________________
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/fiasco-down-on-eviction-farm-1.1141233
Fiasco down on eviction farm
September 20 2011 at 12:52pm
By Paul Harris and Andrew Levy
Comment on this story
iol pic wld dale farm eviction
Reuters
Activists celebrate as they stand on barricades at the Dale Farm traveller site, near Billericay in southern England.
It may have been the travellers’ last stand, but it was no one’s finest hour.
In scenes bordering on farce, the eviction of Dale Farm began with an all-day stand-off and ended with yet another legal hitch in a local council’s efforts to clear Europe’s largest illegal site.
On one side were protesters and travellers insisting they shall not be moved.
On the other, bailiffs and a small platoon of blue-uniformed officials spouting health and safety concerns through a loudhailer that didn’t work.
But this long-awaited first stage in the Battle of Basildon was abruptly halted yesterday when a judge sitting 50 miles away granted a last-gasp injunction to delay further action.
Now the operation to clear the site has been put on hold until at least the end of the week after Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart ruled at the High Court in London that the proposed measures “may go further” than the terms of the enforcement notices.
Basildon Council was thrown into disarray last night as its lawyers scrambled to read through the injunction. Leader Tony Ball hurriedly left a television interview for an urgent briefing.
He didn’t explain the ruling when he returned to give a brief statement an hour later but said he was “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by the decision.
He added: “The motion was put forward to the High Court without notice, which meant the judge only had one side of the story and therefore has given the council until Friday to go back to the High Court to make its argument.
“I am absolutely clear that, in this issue
on Friday, the court will find in the council’s favour and the clearance will be able to continue.”
The latest twist came as it was revealed that the travellers on the site at Crays Hill in Essex have been offered a total of 38 local authority homes to move from the site. Basildon Council has suggested a variety of temporary flats and houses over the past six months in an effort to resolve the decade-long stand-off.
But they were turned down for reasons including because they smelled of smoke or were made of bricks and mortar, “contravening” the travellers’ desire to spend their life on the road.
A council spokesman said yesterday’s injunction provided a “blanket ban against the removal of any and all property” from the illegal camp.
A source later said they believed it might refer to the High Court order earlier this year which stated the eviction could go ahead and the concrete driveways, “hard standings”, the caravans stand on could be removed. The source added they understood this failed to refer to fences and some other structures on the hard-standings, creating a legal loophole.
News of the injunction brought whoops of delight from travellers and supporters. One, who gave her name as Mary, said: “Thank God for British justice.” The travellers and troublemakers had manned the ramparts of their barricade from before dawn as police, the local council and bailiffs set up camp beside the main entrance.
Fifty-one plots containing homes built without planning permission are set to be cleared from the six-acre site, along with their remaining residents, in an operation which could cost £18 million.
Like opposing armies, the two sides emerged into daylight in different uniforms - the authorities a mixture of orange, yellow and blue, versus the travellers’ preference for track-suits. For hours yesterday they could be seen making their separate preparations for war.
And every sign was that this is going to be a long campaign.
If anyone needed confirmation, it came with the arrival of a stout traveller humping a consignment of supplies towards the gate. About 200 rolls of toilet paper in jumbo packs were pushed through a gap in the barricade to eager waiting hands. The delivery was followed by supplies of high carbohydrate and energy foods such as crisps, peanuts and Bourbon Creams.
Nearby, a traveller in a distinctive white homburg was holding court with reporters. “Don’t give them your name, Eamonn,” a woman shouted from behind. One traveller who gave his name as Michael added: “We have got to take a stand. If we don’t, this will just carry on with other traveller communities.” Other families complained they had nowhere else to go - an argument weakened by the discovery that many some have luxury homes back in Ireland.
Their resistance, which has received support from the UN, Vanessa Redgrave and the Bishop of Chelmsford, is in defiance of officials who insist they are breaking the law.
A woman dressed as a witch took up position with a walkie-talkie to a lookout platform on the ramparts.
“They’re coming!” someone shouted, and all eyes turned towards a cluster of hard-hatted bailiffs being escorted by police towards the blocked gate. Protesters filled flour bombs and distributed missiles as they advanced, pageant-like, up the main approach.
From here, the platoon leader expressed health and safety concerns about the barricade, straining now under the weight of opposing forces.
A sign on the outside said a woman had secured herself to the gate by a noose - and warned that if it was forced open, she would be killed. Shouts of “racists” drowned out most of the bailiff’s remaining words, and cheers accompanied his retreat.
Had his megaphone been working, the travellers might have heard him saying something about trying to resolve the stand-off swiftly and peacefully. Yesterday, neither outcome looked likely. - Daily Mail
____________________________________________________________________
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/09/21/Reprieved_Travellers_are_warned_they_face_a_bill_for_costs_o/
Reprieved Travellers are warned they face a bill for costs of delay
Residents said they would re-open the barricaded front gate to allow neighbours - who had left in anticipation of the bailiffs' arrival - to return to the site
By Kevin Rawlinson
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Families who celebrated a last-gasp reprieve which prevented their eviction from a Travellers' site at Dale Farm in Essex on Monday have been warned they will be hit with a bill for the costs of the delay, should the temporary injunction be cancelled at a second hearing on Friday.
A High Court judge ordered that the eviction should be put back while the council clarified what it intended to do with each of the 51 illegal pitches on the site. Lawyers for the residents agreed in court to be liable for any costs.
It is thought that a reduced contingent of bailiffs will remain on site, while Basildon Council will have to pay for security teams to patrol the wider area, as well as paying its own legal costs. A source said council officials were pessimistic about their chances of recouping costs from the Travellers but insisted they would certainly pursue them through the courts for the money.
Supporters of the Dale Farm residents claimed the council is spending up to £1.2m per day to keep its operation running, but a council spokesman said he "did not recognise that figure".
"There is no way the residents will be able to pay out the kinds of sums that are likely to be demanded," said a spokesman for the supporters camped at Dale Farm.
He added: "For [the council] to attempt to blame the residents is just absurd, when the reason the injunction was granted was because they were unclear on what they were going to do once they got on to Dale Farm. It is because of their overzealous attempt to bulldoze the entire site that we are having this delay."
The council leader, Tony Ball, said he was frustrated by the delay but confident that the ruling would be overturned once the authority was given an opportunity to present its side of the story to the court on Friday.
Residents said yesterday that they would re-open a barricaded front gate to allow any of their neighbours, who had left in anticipation of the bailiffs moving in, to return. They also said they would allow a planning inspector on to the site but insisted that the gate itself, the object of safety concerns, will remain in place.
A leading campaigner, Grattan Puxon, said: "The gate stays, although we will look at building a side gate to allow a council officer access. The remaining issue is what is a touring caravan – which they can remove – and what is a static home, which they can't. There is also an ongoing argument over hard standings laid by the council when it was a scrapyard, which we say should remain."
A spokesman for the council confirmed that it would not seek to clear buildings from that part of the site which was formerly a scrapyard, but Mr Ball called on residents to "discourage any further protest from non-Dale Farm residents and to dismantle the barricades".
Council officials delivered documents to residents yesterday, explaining what action it would take during the eviction and when it was planned. A spokesman said that, should the injunction be overturned, bailiffs could move in as early as Saturday.
