Essex council to evict 400 Travellers

Enforcement of eviction orders at Basildon site likely to cost £18m and could leave children and elderly people homeless A Conservative-controlled council has voted to spend millions of pounds evicting Travellers from an unauthorised site. Officials estimate that evicting more than 400 people from the former scrapyard near Basildon, Essex, could cost taxpayers £18m. Conservatives on Basildon council insisted that planning laws had to be upheld, and gave the green light despite opposition from Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The council was told that the Dale Farm site at Crays Hill – which is on green-belt land – was occupied without planning permission in 2001 and had grown in the past decade. Conservatives said all attempts to find alternative sites had failed and eviction orders had to be enforced. Opponents said the council would be wasting millions and was risking making elderly people and children homeless. Several hundred members of the public, including Travellers from the site, gathered to hear the debate on Monday night. Officials estimated that council costs could rise to £8m and police costs nearly £10m. The meeting was told that attempts to secure funds from central government had failed. Opponents said going ahead with the eviction could lead to council staff losing their jobs. The council, which has had its plans for eviction approved by senior judges, has yet to announce when the clearance operation will start. Police stood by outside the theatre where the debate was staged but it ended without incident. Communities Social exclusion Local politics Housing guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 15, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.