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Dale Farm 'won't go back to green belt' as judge says fences and five traveller homes can stay

By Arthur Martin for the Daily Mail
Updated: 07:03 EST, 4 October 2011

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The Dale Farm saga took yet another farcical twist yesterday when a High Court judge ruled it did not have to be turned back into green-belt land.

Bailiffs were given permission yesterday to remove 49 of the 54 caravans at Europe’s largest illegal travellers’ site.

But Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart said walls, fences and gates that had been built on the site without planning permission did not have to be demolished.

Dale Farm residents (from left) Mary McCarthy, Tina McCarthy and Margaret McCarthy outside the High Court, London, as their court case against their eviction continues

Tina McCarthy, Margaret McCarthy and Mary McCarthy outside the High Court. Basildon Council has confirmed it will not begin clearing the Dale Farm site until ongoing court proceedings end

The local council is waiting for the outcome of a second High Court case today before it can decide on an eviction date.

But even when it is finally allowed to clear the illegal camp, it must not touch five ‘dwellings’ because of complex planning rules.

This means some families could still be living on the land after the bailiffs have completed their job.

The council will have to spend even more money on further legal action if it wants to remove the final caravans and the surrounding walls and fences.

Up for the fight: Candy Sheridan (centre), a representative for the Dale Farm travellers, addresses the media outside the High Court on September 26 after winning another extension to their eviction notice

Yesterday’s ruling dashes any prospect of completely clearing the site in Crays Hill, Essex, and returning it to green-belt status.

The protracted legal battle has already pushed the cost of clearing the camp to £22million.

And in a further blow to Basildon Council, which is responsible for clearing the six-acre site, the judge ordered it to pay a third of the travellers’ legal fees.

Last night residents who have campaigned for ten years to remove the travellers from Dale Farm said the eviction process was a ‘waste of money’.

Determined: Dale Farm travellers, seen here outside the gates to the site, have fought a long battle with Basildon Council to remain in their homes

Len Gridley, 52, whose garden backs on to the illegal site, said: ‘The council will have to get another injunction on the walls and the fences and it will cost them even more money.

‘They are wasting their time and money with the way they have gone about this.

‘They need to return it to green-belt land. Just clearing the caravans is simply not good enough.

‘Let’s get the bailiffs on there and get the eviction started.’

The eviction at Dale Farm was halted at the 11th hour on September 19 after an emergency injunction was put in place by the High Court.

We're with you: Two supporters give their backing to the travellers during the latest legal wranglings

David McPherson-Davis, a parish councillor for Crays Hill, said: ‘The travellers are trying to drag this out in the hope that Basildon Council runs out of money or the police run out of time.

‘I say get the travellers out and get them out now. We can deal with the fences and walls once they are gone.

‘Yes, it needs to go back to green-belt land, but that will be a lot easier to do once those people are off the site.

‘The issue of the fences and walls is a problem because they were not in the original documentation.’

The 86 families who face eviction argue that they should not be removed because the land they bought in 2001 was being used as a scrapyard.

Basildon Council says only a small part of the farm was being used as a scrapyard and it has always hoped to return it to green-belt status.

Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy said: ‘This will leave Dale Farm as a patchwork of concrete and fences, not the green belt the council are claiming it will be. Where are we supposed to go? They are separating families and ruining so many lives here, and for what?

‘To turn Dale Farm into a scrapyard again. It’s ridiculous.’

Intent: Travellers outside a fortified fence guarding Dale Farm last month. They have begun to turn the site back into a fortress

Another group of travellers have moved on to the site where the U.S. Olympic team will be based during the London 2012 Games.

The group, believed to be French, have parked around ten caravans yards from the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, where the American track and field team will train.

The travellers had been moved on from other sites around the city.