Dale Farm

An article in the local newspaper, the Echo, quotes an English Romany Gypsy, Joe Jones, that the site was first stopped at by Travelling families during the 1970s. The article reported that residents of the nearby village claim the "influx" of Irish Travellers which followed in 2001–2002 caused a rise in conflict with the "settled community" and that most of the "English Travellers" to have subsequently "sold up as they are said not to mix" with the Irish Travellers.[13]

In 2002 a land dispute allegedly led to the death by shooting of Billy Williams, for which Oak Lane Traveller Paul Saunders was found innocent.[13]

Ownership of the unauthorised portion appeared to rest with the Sheridan family of Travellers. Richard Sheridan is the chairman of the Dale Farm Housing Association. He is also a former chair of the British Gypsy Council (GCECWCR).

A reporter for the Echo claimed that some Travellers are linked to driveway surfacing in continental Europe,[14] and door to door sales of electrical goods in Australia and Iceland, some of a "dangerous or counterfeit" nature.[15]

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that "new evidence has emerged" that some residents have cultural roots in the town of Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland, and some own property there. The newspaper said of the residents: "They deny any connections, yet some of them appear on deeds of homes, others on planning applications for houses and yet more on the electoral register." It also notes that Matthew Brindley, of the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, said: "Some people might have property elsewhere but the vast majority do not." Jake Fulton, of Save Dale Farm, said: "If this is true I would be very surprised."[16]

The Travellers also have links to the local area, with many of their children attending a local Crays Hill school[17] in Billericay.

Early in the morning of 19 May 2005, a fire swept through a chalet, killing both John and Cathleen McCarthy and destroying three adjacent caravans.[18]

The Council has questioned why pitches in the legal part of the site are usually unoccupied. However, "Grattan Puxon, a campaigner for Travellers, said the owners would spend much of the year travelling. ... and some of the plots also had to be vacated before the electricity company carried out work at some of the plots"[19]

Robert Home stated in a telephone interview that

"the travellers [sic] would normally be on the road between April and October and use a more permanent site over the winter months. But many had remained at Dale Farm for a longer period to counter the threat of eviction."[20]

In February 2009, Billericay MP John Baron urged the priest of the local Catholic Church in Wickford to use his "influence to persuade the travellers to leave the site to avoid confrontations over the eviction". The priest responded that instead, he would be joining the anti-eviction protests, and that the church had already offered to provide temporary shelter for mothers and children of the community.[21]

In October 2011, a legal process that had taken ten years, reaching as far as the Court of Appeal, concluded with the ruling that Basildon Council has acted lawfully in refusing planning permission for the disputed portion of Dale Farm.[22]

Prior to the clearance of the illegally occupied portion of the site, the entirety of Dale Farm contained about 100 families.[23]

On 15 March 2011, Basildon Council voted 28 to 10 to move 86 families from Dale Farm.[24] During a series of secret talks over the following six months between Travellers leader Richard Sheridan, council leader Tony Ball and head of planning Dawn French, the Travellers demanded £6 million to relocate to authorised and potential new sites outside Basildon.[25]

On 4 July, eviction notices were served on some 90 families living on the illegal half of the Dale Farm site, giving them until 31 August 2011 to leave.[26] The eviction date was set for the week beginning 19 September 2011, and electricity supplies to the site were planned to be cut off on the morning of the eviction.[27]

On 26 August a temporary 50 mph. speed limit was applied to a two-mile stretch of the A127 carriageway by Essex County Council, anticipating an influx of slow-moving caravans and trucks joining the road when the eviction commenced. Local road blocks were then introduced in areas surrounding Dale Farm.[28] Farmers in the area blockaded their entrances to prevent illegal occupation of their land.[29]

The British firm of bailiffs, Constant and Co., was given the £2.2 million contract to clear 54 pitches at Dale Farm.[30]

On 15 September the Council asked that the residents "peacefully vacate" the unauthorised site, and stressed that it would meet its duty to house homeless families as the law demands.[31]

On 19 September a mediation offer by Jan Jařab, the regional representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was rejected by the Foreign Office.[32]

Camp Constant was a team of human rights monitors, established in a campsite within Dale Farm. The camp was organised by the Dale Farm Solidarity group with the support of the Travellers. A mixture of concerned locals and activists arrived from Britain and various countries in Europe[33] after it was established on 27 August.

That morning, a bailiff addressed the residents, expressing health and safety concerns regarding the barricades and the possibly forceful eviction.[32]

However, following court evidence given by Mary Sheridan and others, Mr Justice Antony Edwards-Stuart sitting at the High Court in London that day issued an injunction. He stated that the proposed measures 'may go further' than the terms of the enforcement notices. He said the council must notify the families individually about the precise nature of enforcement actions planned against them, and must give them a chance to respond. Enforcement could not occur before 23 September, and water and electricity must not be cut off.[32]

Basildon Council said on 20 September:

The High Court yesterday granted an injunction preventing the Council from undertaking any physical measures to secure compliance with the outstanding planning enforcement notices and also to prevent the electricity and all other utilities from being cut. (There was never any intention for the Council to cut the water supply).[34]

Before the injunction of 19 September, the eviction was expected to involve the removal of around 400 residents, including about 100 children.[35][36]

On 3 October, Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart ruled that Basildon Council could remove caravans from 49 of 54 plots. The council was also told it could remove the majority of concrete pitches on the site, but walls and fences would remain. Travellers had lodged applications for three separate judicial reviews which delayed action. On 13 October, Mr Justice Duncan Ouseley ruled against these appeals, saying residents were constantly violating criminal law and must be removed to prevent "the criminal law and the planning system being brought into serious disrepute".[37]

Lord Justice Jeremy Sullivan, ruling on a referral to the Court of Appeal on 17 October, advised representatives of the Dale Farm residents that they could not challenge the decision by Mr Justice Ouseley. Following the hearing, Tony Ball announced that, with the exception of three plots where 48 hours notice would be provided, that Basildon council would not provide further notice of when the eviction would start. He encouraged the residents and activists to leave peacefully. On behalf of the residents, Mrs. Kathleen McCarthy said that the decision meant that the Travellers would be forced back onto the road.

A spokeswoman for the Dale Farm Solidarity group advised on 17 October that the site had gone into "lockdown" and the perimeter had been reinforced around the 49 plots, in order to resist eviction of the families affected.[38] The large metal gates at the front of the site were locked and many other entry points were heavily fortified with metal fencing, barbed wire and other items.

BBC correspondent Fergal Keane, who was inside the illegal part of the site, said:

"There is now about an equal split between travellers and supporters. The travellers are certainly grateful for the support of the activists. They are expecting the bailiffs at any time and they are unlikely to come through the front entrance. Wherever they enter the site they are likely to be met by peaceful resistance."[39]

At 7 am. on 19 October 2011[40] the site clearance of Dale Farm began. Electricity was disconnected. Local MP John Baron said: "Police are using the minimum force required and when you are being pelted with bricks and rocks you are entitled to defend yourself." A Labour MEP for the region, Richard Howitt, said: "The smoke above Dale Farm is the most visible sign of the failure of Basildon Council to seek a mediated solution."[41] More than 100 riot police entered the site through the rear fence, and two people were tasered.[42] About 200 bailiffs followed after 12 pm to begin removing illegally erected buildings. Some of the residents had to be forcibly removed, whilst others left voluntarily. Police spent most of that afternoon removing people from the 12-metre high scaffold tower on the front gate, with the help of cherry pickers.[43]

Around 4:45 pm. on 20 October, a number of Dale Farm Travellers and supporters walked out of the site. Removal of mobile homes on the site by the bailiffs began[44] and media access to the site was restricted for several days.

By April 2012, 83 families displaced by the eviction – including 100 children – had camped on Oak Lane, the private road leading to the former site, and also in the adjoining authorised site. Dale Farm resident Mary O'Brien said that "Tony Ball knows that we have nowhere else to go".

The Council development control committee voted in December 2012 to send bailiffs in to move the caravans, subject to a High Court judicial review. However, in February 2013, Basildon approved a plan for 15 double caravan pitches at a government-owned site in Gardiners Lane South, about 700 yards' distance from Dale Farm. The Council will lease the land from the Homes and Communities Agency.

After the decision to clear the site, the Council prepared budgetary statements for costs, with a worst case expense estimated at £8 million. Before the injunction of 19 September, the Council said that "The estimated direct operational cost of £6.5m together with estimated post operational costs of £1.5m produce a total of £8m."[6] Predictions of the total cost of eviction varied up to £18 million, including legal costs.

In 2012 Basildon Council confirmed that the Dale Farm eviction cost them £4.8 million.[4] This amount included £1.6 million due to contractor expenses resulting from the High Court injunction in September. Essex Police announced that its costs were £2.4 million, and the Home Office had pledged to contribute up to £4.65 million to policing costs. The Department for Communities and Local Government also contributed £1.2 million. Basildon Council intended to recover costs from the landowners after the clearance, however these efforts failed, partly because of the difficulty of identifying landowners' whereabouts.

Legal aid to residents from 2005 to September 2011 totalled £188,000;[49] costs were paid by the Legal Services Commission. During later court hearings the travellers were represented on a pro-bono basis.