Updated: Traveller site thrown out (From Echo)

Updated: Traveller site thrown out

6:50pm Wednesday 20th June 2007

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TRAVELLERS' hopes of moving to Pitsea have been shattered following fierce opposition.

More than 350 residents living near the proposed legal site at Terminus Drive pleaded with Basildon Council not to let travellers from Crays Hill set up a new home on their doorsteps.

At a Basildon Centre meeting, the development control committee unanimously agreed with officer recommendations to refuse permission to house up to six familes.

Councillors had heard the site, sandwiched between the A13 and the c2c railway line, may be contaminated, so costly investigations would be required.

Zachary Scott, a US human rights volunteer currently living at the site, spoke for the travellers.

Fighting back emotion, he said: "These are real people with real issues. You can't just keep moving them around.

"I ask you to show compassion for them, their children and children with special needs.

"The site at Pitsea may be contaminated, but it's no worse than Dale Farm when they arrived."

Objections from neighbours centred around the site being unsuitable for residential use.

They told how it posed flood risks and there were concerns over sewage disposal, loss of open space and the impact on already stretched services, such as schooling, in Pitsea.

One objector, who did not give a name, said: "If this is approved it could be expanded, legally or otherwise. Travellers have been evicted twice before from this area.

We don't want another Dale Farm situation in Pitsea."

Labour councillor Danny Nandanwar (Vange), who has campaigned against evicting travellers from Dale Farm, described the site as unsuitable for human habitation even on a temporary basis.

The Dale Farm Housing Association application was for a small legal site for the most needy members of the community at Dale Farm, in Oak Lane, Crays Hill.

These included an 86-year-old widow, two orphaned teenage sisters from the mobile home blaze at Dale Farm in 2005, two profoundly deaf children who attend a special school and a woman suffering severe rheumatoid arthritis.

Travellers argued the objections stemmed from prejudice.

Site spokesman Richard Sheridan, who chairs the housing association, said: "We have been turned down on greenbelt. Now they don't want any of us on brownfield either."

Terminus Drive, which is owned by regeneration agency English Partnerships, is currently set aside for industrial use.

It was first identified as a possible alternative home for the Crays Hill travellers by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in November 2005.

He left the final decision with the council.

Councillors heard the land was now earmarked by the agency as a possible sports club site for one of the six needing relocation from Gardiners Close, Basildon. It is believed it could be Basildon United Football Club.

The agency is still trying to find homes for all six sports and social clubs as it is confident a multi-million pound business park will eventually go-ahead.

The council approved the plan, but it was put on ice last year because of a lack of funding.

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