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Travellers' live link to gipsy summit in Brussels (From Echo)
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Travellers' live link to gipsy summit in Brussels
8:00am Thursday 4th September 2008
TRAVELLERS plan to beam live video interviews from their site to an international Roma conference in Brussels.
Campaigners at Dale Farm in Crays Hill, near Billericay, hope to turn the St Christopher’s Community Centre at the site, paid for by Essex County Council, into a studio to link up to an EU-sponsored Roma summit via the internet on September 16.
They plan to use laptops to feed DVD film of previous UK traveller site evictions, including one at Hovefields, Wickford, and live interviews with travellers to an outdoor stage and giant screen, set up during the conference, and linked via the internet to centres across Europe.
Richard Sheridan, Dale Farm spokesman, is attending the summit to put his case for stopping the eviction of what he calls the UK’s largest gipsy village.
Latest figures from Basildon Council in July showed there were 38 occupied pitches at the Dale Farm illegal site and 12 which were empty.
The authority still wants to carry out what would be the country’s biggest mass eviction and is appealing a High Court ruling which suspended its action on December 5 last year.
The Brussels summit, draws together Roma representatives from 40 countries with a total gipsy population of more than ten million, and has been called in the wake of recent mob attacks against Roma people in Italy.
Mr Sheridan complained: “Here in the UK planning regulations are being used to exclude us.”
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Your Say YourEcho
perini12, Leigh on Sea says...
11:48am Thu 4 Sep 08
If you don't like it - you know where the ferry is! Go back to Ireland and see what the proper authorities do there. Oh I forgot - you've come from there because they won't put up with your evil conniving ways. Why should we?
thelonewhinger, benfleet says...
3:46pm Thu 4 Sep 08
What is most concerning in this article is the mention of 10 million Roma folk, all potential asylum seekers (from racist oppression) who might also like a piece of English green belt!
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Winston Smith, Shoeburyness, Airstrip One. says...
8:35am Thu 4 Sep 08
The only reason they live on Dale farm is because greenbelt is cheaper to buy. Unfortunately for them you cannot build on greenbelt, but then they knew this all along and still went ahead and built on it.
They have the money, we know that one was prosecuted for claiming benefit while having around £800,000 in their bank account, so what is stopping them buying or renting homes legally like the rest of us?