Dale Farm: Travellers leave peacefully as bailiffs begin demolishing their homes

this site is now just a pile of rubble

The confrontation between Irish Traveller families, their supporters and bailiffs employed by Baslidon Council to evict them from Dale Farm, came to a peaceful end yesterday afternoon, when they walked out of the site as a group. Some families have moved their caravans onto the adjacent legal pitches - where they will probably be evicted later. Others took to the road. St Christopher's, a wooden chalet which was used for Mass and community meetings, has been scheduled for demolition. Other pitches where static homes stood for ten years are now being reduced to rubble.

Bishop Thomas McMahon, RC Bishop of Brentwood and Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford issued the following statement yesterday: "As Church leaders our approach has always been that there should be a just and peaceful resolution to the situation at Dale Farm. Now that the next phase has been reached, we would urge the same peaceful approach. Confrontation and violence only breed further hardship and distress and are not the answer to the present circumstances. We would encourage the families at Dale Farm and the local authority to move forward in a spirit of dignity and restraint. In the meantime, we are keeping all those affected by the current and distressing situation very much in our prayers at this difficult time."

Fr Dan Mason, Parish Priest from Our Lady of Good Counsel said he felt the Travellers had acted wisely by leaving when they did. He said: "Most of the protesters and the media has gone now, but the process is still continuing. These people have suffered months of stress."

Several people who had owned static chalets at Dale Farm (many with their own outdoor shrines) sold them before the bailiffs came, so now they are now crowded into small caravans onto the pitches which are licensed. "They won't be allowed to stay there" Fr Dan said. "The question is how long before the bailiffs come to remove them. They all fear a second wave. And when that happens they don't know where they will go."