VIPs down for Dale Farm centre opening
1:23pm Monday 5th May 2008
THE controversial new community hall at the Dale Farm traveller site has been officially opened.
Travellers hope the centre will be well used for educating their children and as a venue for hairdressing, flower arranging, literacy and other adult classes.
Guests at Saturday's opening at Dale Farm, in Oak Road, Crays Hill, were told some traveller teenagers had no secondary school places, while others had stopped going to school because of bullying.
The £12,000 wooden building, dubbed St Christopher's Hall, has laptop computers and internet access and also doubles as a Roman Catholic chapel.
It was at the centre of a row last week after the Echo revealed it was being funded by Essex County Council, yet had been put up without planning permission. County Hall has since ordered an investigation, with Tory county council leader Lord Hanningfield vowing to get the money back.
Saturday's launch included a champagne buffet at which travellers' campaigner Grattan Puxon told guests: "About a dozen children haven't been found secondary places. This is somewhere they can learn in the interim.
"There are others who have stopped attending because of bullying and prejudice. We hope the council will see this as a positive step."
American human rights volunteer James Dasinger - currently living on the site - will lead IT lessons in the centre.
Mr Puxon added: "We will also allow home tutors from the traveller education service to use it for classes. Lessons will start next week.
"The money has come via the Youth Opportunity Fund for three to 19-year-olds, so it will primarily be for youngsters, but some adult women have expressed interest in learning hairdressing and flower arranging."
The launch was attended by Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury and Clive Mardner, head of the sponsoring body, the Essex Racial Equality Council.
Lord Avebury has championed travellers' rights for many years and helped introduce the Caravan Act in the Sixties, though it was scrapped by the Tories in 1994.
He said: "The centre will be of great value and service to people on the site.
"Local authorities are failing to provide enough sites, so travellers have to make provision themselves. Sites need the relevant infrastructure like this."
Mr Mardner said: "This is an educational initiative, which will enable young people from the travelling community to learn and develop employment skills.
"It meets the needs of a disadvantaged group who are failing in the education system."