Irish travellers’ legal victory in England

From daily News Line in England:

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

EVICTION REPRIEVE – AT DALE FARM

DALE Farm residents won an injunction late yesterday, restraining police and bailiffs from dismantling structures on the site until a hearing at the High Court at 11.30am on Friday.

‘I feel like I’m five miles up in the air. we have that little bit of hope now. We feel like partying,’ said one young Dale Farm resident on hearing the news.

The order relates to the infrastructure, buildings and caravans and also instructs the council not to cut off the utilities.

Earlier, at 3pm, with two police helicopters swooping overhead, defiant women and children on the scaffolding above barricades at the entrance to the site jeered angrily at police and bailiffs as they marched up.

A bailiff announced by megaphone that the eviction would go ahead and then they all marched away again, with angry residents and supporters jeering them as they went.

Dale Farm resident Patrick James Joyce told News Line: ‘You don’t know what tactics they are going to try, but the likelihood is that people will be hurt.

‘They’ve got a special camp for the bailiffs and one for the police, hundreds and hundreds of riot police and riot vans, up at Barleyland Fair towards Billericay.

‘They’ve spent £10 million on the police, eight-and-a-half million for the bailiffs and that’s on top of three-and-a-half million in legal fees over the past 10 years.’

Noreen told News Line: ‘I am terrified, it is very distressing, we will see what today is going to bring us. We are very happy with all the support, in Dublin yesterday 400 people marched for us.’

Daniel Sheridan said: ‘I am very angry, I am 66 years of age. I am not able to go on the road any more. I have lost the sight in one eye, all my grandchildren were born here. This is racism, they’re telling us to go back to Ireland. I have got nothing in Ireland, I left Ireland in 1963. My grandchildren were getting educated here. They can read and write, this takes it all away.’

John Sheridan said: ‘I am upset. What are they putting us out of here for? We are doing no harm. It is racism really. I have a 70-year-old mother, she cannot get her breath. She is on a machine. My dad died fighting for here 12 months ago.’

John’s 14 year old son, also called John, said: ‘I have lived here most of my life. We are very upset and angry. We bought a licensed scrap yard and now they are saying it was a green field. It was never a green field.

‘I am worried for the old people. They are going to croak. Half the people in here suffer with their hearts and if the bailiffs go in, it will kill them.

‘There are a lot of young people in there. Their education will end. You cannot go to school when you are on the road.’

Margaret said: ‘My baby is due in five weeks. I am very distressed about the eviction and getting put out of our homes. There is nowhere to go when we leave.’

Kathleen Sheridan said: ‘There are some people in there with chains round their necks. They are prepared to die. There are sick elderly people in there, who they are throwing out of their homes.’

Danny Gee said: ‘This has to be stopped. What Basildon council is doing is killing old people. It would be more humane to get a gun and shoot them. The trade unions should stand up and be counted. What is happening here is happening all over the country. Local people are getting evicted all over the country.’

Eighty-year-old Patrick Quiligan said: ‘I have arthritis, I am a diabetic, I have angina, I am taking nine tablets a day. I am very concerned. I have no place to go. Do you not think that this is ridiculous here? What a waste of money, with half the world starving. A lot of my children and grandchildren live in Dale Farm. Getting evicted will kill me, I’d say.’

Michael said: ‘This cannot be a Green Belt issue, because if it was, why is it in the news every night that from next month the planning laws are being scrapped. This is an issue of racism.’

Maria Sheridan said: ‘I am terrified for myself and my family. I am scared to death. I cannot sleep at night. It is so heart-breaking. Grannies are getting ripped away from their families. They are ruining people’s lives.’

Dale Farm residents and supporters warned today that the fight to save their homes is far from over despite their eviction being delayed: here.

From the BBC:

20 September 2011 Last updated at 09:56 GMT

Dale Farm: Plot holders to get individual quit notices

Basildon Council is to serve enforcement notices later on each of the 51 illegally occupied plots at the travellers’ site at Dale Farm in Essex.

Travellers have been granted an injunction until Friday preventing Basildon Council entering the site to clear the unauthorised plots.

Constant & Co, the “specialist” bailiff firm that is ready to evict Dale Farm Travellers, promotes itself with racist language: here.

Traveller activists at Dale Farm in Essex began breaking down their own barricades today but declared that it was a goodwill gesture rather than surrender.

Dale Farm travellers’ legal fight continued at the High Court today where lawyers for 400 residents urged the court to extend an injunction which has barred Basildon Council from deploying an £18m eviction operation.

Dale Farm families gained a few days’ grace today when High Court judge Justice Edwards-Stuart extended a week-long injunction against Basildon council’s eviction order.

DALE Farm residents won another reprieve in the High Court yesterday, after a judge ruled that Basildon Council hadn’t been sufficiently clear in its enforcement notices: here.

Two activists were held today after scaling Basildon council offices in protest against the planned eviction of traveller families from Dale Farm: here.