The Big Society: Gypsies and Travellers not included?

Posted by Felix Columbidae

27/04/2011 – The situation at Dale Farm in Essex is now reaching an endgame which could go either way; a triumph of common sense or a step back into a dark past. There are probably few issues which arouse the blood of union jack waving “Englishmen” than having a Gypsy/Traveller camp at the end of your street. Clearly the solution to such an imposition is to bulldoze them away, literally, and turf them out onto the streets, any street of course but my street.

This is the plan as proposed by the enlightened local politicians who control Basildon Council. First send in the baliffs to smash everything up, then bulldoze the site to ground level and then simply abandon the old women and children to the streets. These intelligent perceptive politicos, allegedly, have already declared that once the turf the people out they have no responsibility to provide a site or house them. My god these are the sort of brains that will see England rule the waves once again!

Now the story as I understand it is that the main objection is that this community has built on green belt land without planning permission. In all fairness that seems to be a good solid reason for demanding their removal. Rules are rules, one could argue, and green belt land is sacred in the English consciousness. However, all things must be viewed in context and when you understand the context a very different story emerges. I know this for a fact as I have visited Dale Farm and spoken with the people.

Whilst this land may have been designated as green belt land, before the community put up their homes in this location the land was used as a scrap yard. Hardly rolling English countryside! Basildon Council themselves apparently used the scrap yard to get rid of confiscated unsafe vehicles. So the politicians and locals were all quite happy for industrial waste and scrap to be sited in this “green belt”, nothing wrong with rusting metal and piles of old tyres.

Adjacent to this eyesore, that is unless you like a good scrapyard at the end of your street, a community of Travellers acquired some land and, with planning permission, built some Traveller style homes. The mood of the political world at the time was defined by Thatcher’s idea that Gypsies and Travellers should be encouraged to buy their own land to provide their own sites. Well guess what, people went ahead and bought the scrap yard. They levelled it and cleaned it out and they then built their homes there, adjacent to the existing community.

They believed that planning permission was a formality. That they were wrong is clear and that some of the local politicians were going to treat their position with such implacable venom was also not anticipated. However, what we are now left with is that these people will be cast out onto the streets at a massive cost to taxpayers and then inevitably become a massive social problem. Children removed from schools, sick and elderly probably landing up in hospitals, goodness knows what else.

Surely common sense says that the destruction of their homes at the expense of taxpayers is the policy of lunatics! We don’t have enough homes in the UK as it is and here we have a council tearing housing down!

And what does the world say about this? Almost every organisation that matters is saying “This cannot happen, this should not happen, this is madness.” Below is an article by Gratton Puxon laying out in more detail the current state of affairs. I ask you to ask yourselves, do we really want a world where the forcible eviction of travellers and the physical destruction of their homes on land they have bought is seen as rational policy in the 21st century?

MPs WANT DALE FARM EVICTION CALLED OFF

By Grattan Puxon

With the UK Government urging local councils to mount anti-Gypsy clearance operations over the Easter holiday, speculation has sharpened as to the fate of Dale Farm. The only Traveller-owned village – facing the furious folly of a 20m euro bulldozer-led onslaught – is enjoying greater support than at any time during its ten year-long siege.

Meetings are taking place this week aimed at deterring Basildon Borough council from ordering the final assault, while voices from within all three major political parties have called for restraint. Many are coming to see that exclusion methods will exacerbate a fraught situation, not only for Dale Farm families and the rest of Britain’s 350,000 Gypsies, but for the whole concept of the much vaunted Big Society.

A delegation from an all party parliamentary group which, together with an Irish Embassy representative, visited Dale Farm last week is to recommend that
fellow MPs back efforts to find alternative land for those facing eviction. Their stance has the authority of the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing
Raquel Rolnik, who has appealed to the UK over the massive clearance plan.

“Land is available within Basildon if the council will only agree to use it,” said Lord Avebury while lunching with the Travellers. “Eviction can most certainly be
avoided.”

Andrew Slaughter MP, Labour’s shadow justice minister, and MP Rodney Bickerstaffe, former head of Unison, were among those at the meeting, together with Conservative Richard Bennett, one-time chair of the Local Government Association. Lib Dem MP Andrew George has recently put down a motion asking Parliament to endorse the proposition that there can be no justification for evicting Travellers such as those at Dale Farm when there is nowhere else for them to go.

Before the week is over, a further team of legal observers will have received training in London for deployment during what could to be a month of confrontation and demolition. They will join dozens already signed up by Essex University Human Rights Clinic.

Harlow Against the Cuts, in company with anti-fascist and socialist groups, has scheduled for Thursday one of a number of information nights held around the
country to recruit people willing to camp out with the Travellers. This volunteer home-guard is said to number over one thousand, with more on social networking
yet to commit to a nonviolent protest.

Both the Children’s Commission and the Basildon Primary Care Trust have expressed concern over the trauma likely to be inflicted on children during the
operation. The potential for human rights violations has been spelt out in an internationally-backed legal memorandum and a pre-action letter served on the
council warns of judicial review proceedings should a final 28-day eviction notice be served this week.

“We look at this as civil defence,” said a Dale Farm mother. “Everyone will be here to uphold human rights law and stop breaches of safety, which are sure to happen when people are being dragged out and our homes crushed.”
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TWO MEETINGS ON THURSDAY (28 April)

Strategy & Legal Observer Training
Irish Traveller Movement
The Resource Centre
356 Hollow Road
London N7 6PA
9.30am to 3.30pm
Notify attendance to
mairead@irishtraveller.org.uk
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Info Night for Dale Farm
Harlow Uncut
Gibson Court
Bishopsfields
Harlow, Essex
7.30pm

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