Last-minute appeal by Dale Farm Travellers refused

TRAVELLERS THREATENED with eviction from the Dale Farm caravan site in Essex have been refused permission to launch a last-minute High Court appeal against the action by Basildon Borough Council, which is due to begin on Monday.

The Travellers, several hundred of whom face eviction, had hoped they would get a chance to challenge the evictions on the grounds that the health of significant numbers will be threatened if they are forced out.

However, the judicial office at the High Court in London said an application by Traveller Mary Flynn, who needs a constant supply of electricity for her medical needs, to appeal the High Court’s rejection of her case had “been refused on the papers”.

Meanwhile, Eileen O’Brien (11) has written to British prime minister David Cameron, appealing to him to stop the evictions, saying she had lived at Dale Farm since she was one year old.

“So, it will be really hard leaving, especially when we are getting dragged out of our own land. I and my friend will probably go to different places, so it will be very difficult coping. We were both born in Basildon Hospital, so we are British residents,” she wrote.

The director of the Irish Travellers’ Movement in Britain, Yvonne MacNamara, said Eileen was one of 150 children who will be forcefully removed – 100 of whom attend the local primary school in Crays Hill.

Some Travellers have left the caravan site four miles outside Basildon. Talks are to take place between the Gypsy Council of the UK and council officials today and tomorrow to reach an agreement surrounding the entry of bailiffs and police on to the site on Monday morning.

“It is in everybody’s interests for it to be as peaceful as possible,” said Candy Sheridan of the Gypsy Council, who said that she hoped the council would agree to using a small number of bailiffs: “It would be less threatening that way.”

Expressing hope that the evictions would proceed without trouble, Basildon council said the Travellers’ possessions “will be packed up, photographed and put into storage” if they choose not to leave before the deadline expires.