Viewpoint: Where can Dale Farm Travellers go?

simples message at site entrance

Hundreds of Irish Travellers, including children and elderly sick people, who have lived in chalets and caravans on land they bought in Essex more than ten years ago, face eviction this month after Basildon Council ruled that the land they live on (a former scrapyard) is desiginated as greenbelt. One reader has sent us the following opinion piece.

The Travellers who are on Dale Farm illegally are stymied by a dilemma - they are wanting to abide by the laws, but they have nowhere else to go. Basildon is essentially saying: "That's not our problem. Find your own accommodations."

The laws say they can't travel, so they don't travel. I thought that British law mandated pitches for the Travellers. Whatever happened to this?

Could there not be some kind of compromise where the Pitch Law could be honoured by grandfathering the illegal settlement? This would not set precedent because the situation is unique. It would not invite squatting from others because of the ETHNICITY issue.

When was the land declared Greenbelt anyway? Before or after their being there? If afterward, then Basildon doesn't have a leg to stand on.

I see Basildon at fault because they are enforcing one law and one law only and that law is questionable because of its date of passage in relation to the Travellers settling there.

Basildon has the laws in hand, but are they informing the Travellers of their rights under the British crown? I don't see that happening. The Travellers, as I said, are more than willing to follow the law, if they only knew what it was.

Their ignorance of the law has prevented their finding other accommodation, and therefore makes them immovable.

Blessings,
Gemma
foundress2003@yahoo.com