CRAYS HILL: £2m bill to evict gipsies

By pdent-jones

MORE than £1million of taxpayers' cash has been spent in court fees fighting travellers at Britain's biggest illegal camp site.

And the bill to Joe Public will reach more than £2.3million if and when an eviction goes ahead.

The shocking revelation came as Basildon council leader Malcolm Buckley announced the authority would not be defending a legal challenge by gipsies at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, over its controversial log-cabin community centre – which was built without planning permission – because of escalating costs.

Instead, council chiefs will wait for a Court of Appeal hearing in December when a final decision will be made over a potential eviction of both Dale Farm and the Hovefields site in Wickford.

Cllr Buckley told the Gazette: "Following the Court of Appeal hearing we expect to be in a position to press ahead with the eviction anyway.

"It would cost a substantial five-figure sum to fight this in court and we can't justify spending more of taxpayers' cash, especially when we may be able to remove the cabin soon depending on the outcome of the Court of Appeal hearing."

Travellers had sought another judicial review to challenge the council's decision to remove the £12,000 cabin, which was controversially funded by Essex County Council's Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds, and then built on Green Belt land without planning permission back in May.

The legal wrangle is on top of Basildon council's appeal hearing, set for December, which challenges the High Court ruling in May that decided travellers could stay as the council's decision in December 2007 had not taken into account their welfare or the fact they would be made homeless.

However, Mr Justice Collins admitted that 86 traveller families at Dale Farm and 15 at Hovefields could not stay for ever.

Cllr Buckley said: "The total pot will reach in excess of £2.3million, but you can't put a price on maintaining the law.

"So far as we're concerned, we wish we didn't have to spend so much money, but we have no choice. If we didn't challenge the travellers, then it would signal a free for all for everybody and we don't want unchecked developments going up anywhere in the district.

"When you think what this money could do, say for example improving the environment in Billericay and Wickford high streets, it could make a dramatic impact."

But speaking in response to the council's decision not to defend the judicial review, lead spokesman for the travellers Grattan Puxon said: "This is a curious legal situation because our solicitor's opinion is that the council can't withdraw in this way. Its decision to remove the community centre still stands, it has only been suspended, so the judicial review will go ahead and the council will also face costs."