Travellers’ site is getting bigger

3:57pm Wednesday 27th February 2008

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EUROPE'S biggest illegal traveller site at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, is expanding.

The revelation comes as a High Court judge decides whether Basildon Council should be allowed to evict 86 traveller families already there.

Our photograph shows hardcore strewn across green belt land where a small bungalow has been built, between Dale Farm and the A127.

Council officers visited the land following a call from the Echo to see if planning permission was in place after a reporter spotted the development.

Council leader Malcolm Buckley said: "Officers have been and are assessing the appropriate action to ensure unauthorised development does not proceed.

"We rely on the community to be our eyes and ears and thank the Echo for bringing this to light."

He said officers were trying to establish if the area was protected by injunctions put in place on land owned by travellers in 2005, when they first voted to evict, but believe it may not be covered.

Len Gridley, 48, whose Oak Road home borders the site, said: "It shows legal hearings don't mean anything to travellers. They carry on building.

"We asked the council to protect this land and it hasn't. It is maladministration."

David McPherson-Davis, Ramsden Crays Parish Council chairman, said: "This would appear to be illegal development and is very worrying considering how quickly Dale Farm was built.

"We were led to believe all the land between the site and A127 was under an injunction."

Travellers at Dale Farm hope to set up a temporary "tent city" on land they own by the site if they are evicted.

Yesterday, campaigner Grattan Puxon said: "I was not aware of any new development. There are still some English gipsies at Oak Lane not connected to Dale Farm. This is nothing to do with our tent city which would not require any hardcore."