The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain (ICB) has condemned the decision of
Basildon Council to serve eviction notices on the residents of the Dale
Farm Irish Travellers community in Essex.
Basildon council has given the ninety or so families on the site
until August 31 to leave their homes, or face the ordeal of eviction.
Joe Boyce of the ICB said, "Dale Farm residents have always been
willing to leave their land peacefully if viable alternative plots were
made available which would enable them to rebuild their homes while
maintaining their community.”
“The council will spend an estimated £18.2 million [€20.5M] to evict
but has never made any serious attempt to work with the community to
find a sensible solution to the real accommodation needs of the
community.”
Philomena Cullen, Director of the ICB added, "This news is a terrible
blow to the Traveller families, who have always been open to peacefully
leaving Dale Farm site, provided that they had an alternative site that
they could legally go to. Now we are in the situation where hundreds
of people, many of these children and older people, will be once more
forced onto the road.”
“These families, who will now have their lives disrupted, their
livelihoods jeopardised and forced into the inevitable cycle of
constantly being moved on. Even in crude financial terms, there is no
logic in the council's decision - it will cost them more to evict than
it would do to identify a legal place for Travellers to live."
The residents have been given until the August 31 to leave the land
that they legally own and have lived peacefully on for a decade.
The ICB is monitoring the situation and will be acting as legal observers if the eviction goes ahead.