BASILDON: Don't waste £13m on eviction, just give us time to move, say travellers
TRAVELLERS living illegally at Dale Farm have urged Basildon Borough Council not to spend £13 million of taxpayers' money to evict them from the site in the spring.
Richard Sheridan, who lives at the site in Crays Hill, made his plea in an exclusive interview with the Gazette in London this week, as he headed to the House of Commons for crunch talks with Billericay's MP John Baron.
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"I would hate to see £13 million of taxpayers' money wasted on an eviction when it could be put to better use," Mr Sheridan said.
He instead urged the council to give the travellers – who are living on green belt land without planning permission – more time to find alternative sites away from Dale Farm, a move which would negate the need for a costly eviction.
Mr Sheridan, who is the president of The Gypsy Council, was joined by two other Dale Farm residents for the meeting, namely Mary-Ann McCarthy and her daughter Kathleen McCarthy.
Kathleen said the occupants of the site accepted that they had breached planning regulations and said they were willing to leave, provided they could find somewhere else to go.
She also stressed that no-one wanted a potential eviction to descend into violence.
"We always said we would leave peacefully if we have somewhere to go," she told the Gazette.
At Thursday's meeting, Tony Ball, the leader of Basildon Borough Council, said the authority would be willing to consider an application to provide a site for some of the travellers at Dale Farm elsewhere in the borough.
However, he stressed that the majority would need to move out of the Basildon area and could not give the traveller delegation a figure of how many could stay locally.
Speaking after the two-hour meeting, Kathleen said it would be difficult for families who have lived at the site for so long to part company.
"How can one half say yes (to leaving the site) and watch the other half suffer?" she said.
Basildon Borough Council is committed to removing the travellers from Dale Farm in the spring and, along with Essex Police, is seeking £13 million from the Government to cover the potential costs of such an operation.
For more on this story see p5
6 Comments
by Bhudeeka
Monday, July 25 2011, 1:17PM
“manuelization you hae just made a complete fool of yourself and proven everyone's comments against gypsies to be 100% correct i sincerely thank you for your honesty on how you all truly behave”
by manuelization
Friday, July 22 2011, 5:55PM
“IAN WICKFORD!
This is the only place where you can speak openly. If ever a Gypsy were near you, he'd smash your mouth in, you ignorant fool!
The £13,000,000 price of this eviction, is not the price to evict Gypsies, but the price of hatred.”
by poloone
Friday, July 22 2011, 12:08AM
“I have just watched the documentry on the evection of Traverllers from Dale Farm Basildon and i think it outragous for the Council to be spending 8 to 18 million on evections of people who need somewhere to live at the end of the day. I have written to David Cameron to have this raised in the House of Commons. If Basildon Council have in excess of 8 million to waste on this project there budget should be cut by 8 Million in the comming year. There is obviously no recession in Basildon and as such the 8 Million plus can be better spent in other Council areas where much needed funding is required. The cheapest option is for Basildon Council is to grant planning permission to the Gypsies and spend their budget on essential services in the Council area. If the Council dose spend this money they need not go to the Governmnet with a begging bowl when they find they have no money for the services their budget money was allocated for. Regards David Quinn”
by IAN, wickford
Wednesday, February 02 2011, 7:43PM
“more time wasting tatics from the travellers. Just go now or be evicted soon. They pay nothing in to society but all work and plead poverty. They deplete the local services and are an anathema to schools etc locally. GO asap.”
by Dave Filton, Bristol England
Wednesday, February 02 2011, 7:17PM
“Abimbola, Where do you draw the line? These people are breaking the law and compounding their action by threats. If people like Cllr Ball give in then what next?”
by Abimbola, Essex
Wednesday, February 02 2011, 4:09PM
“Just how many millions of pounds of Basildon council tax payers' money is Cllr Ball, Tory leader of Basildon D C, going to keep wasting on harrasing the travellers ?
Like Buckley before him, Balls persists in targetting the travellers. This has seen millions squandered on this venture, money which could have been invested in local Basildon services, like schools and roads.
Basildon Tories, some of whom, like Cllr Tony Archer are Freemasons, refuse to let this issue go. Come on, get a life and deal with the things that really matter, or else quit !”