New Supreme Court may get to rule on Dale Farm eviction (From Echo)
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New Supreme Court may get to rule on Dale Farm eviction
4:10am Tuesday 3rd March 2009 in
TRAVELLERS are more confident than ever of continuing their fight against eviction from the Dale Farm campsite.
They say they have now been granted legal aid to take their case to the highest court in the land.
Law Lords will consider an application for an appeal against the eviction.
If successful, the case may be among the first to be heard by the Supreme Court, a new body which is being set up by the Government to act as the country’s final court of appeal.
Representatives of nearly 90 families at the Dale Farm site at Crays Hill, near Billericay, have issued a statement saying their case is now likely to go before the court, which is due to start hearing cases in October.
Grattan Puxon, a campaigner for the families, said travellers would be asking the court to end “a policy of physical exclusion which has afflicted gipsies in Britain for generations”.
He said: “Thousands have been evicted from their own land and tens of thousands of children denied a chance to go to school.
“Old folk and the sick have been left to perish, because medical care has been unobtainable in what is supposed to be a welfare state. A few of those internal refugees have sought refuge at Dale Farm.”
At a meeting at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church on Saturday, church leaders agreed plans to help the most vulnerable Dale Farm residents should an eviction go ahead.
And the Children’s Commissioner has asked Basildon Council for details of its eviction plan.
Specifically, the commissioner wants to know what would be done to avoid trauma to the 150 children who live at Dale Farm and where they would live.
Comments(11)
deadjim
says...
8:17am Tue 3 Mar 09
Getting legal aid makes no difference to the facts of the case,as he well knows and the new Supreme Court will make no difference either as it will be the same Law Lords making the decisions,using the same criteria.
The decision to allow or refuse an appeal to the Lords will be made depending on whether the case involves an arguable point of law of general public importance that should be considered by the House but Mr Puxon does not say what specific point of law he thinks is open to challenge.
In the Court of Appeal in January, three senior judges unanimously supported previous decisions of two Secretaries of State and found that Basildon Council had acted lawfully.
At the hearing the travellers counsel accepted that the planning issues were not in dispute and that the travellers were acting unlawfully so where does Mr Puxon think the three judges were wrong in Law ?
What he is actually saying is the law should be suspended indefinitely for a small minority and that would be in the overall public interest. The majority of the public will expect the Law Lords committee to firmly reject that and refuse the application to appeal .
As to the stuff about ending a policy of physical exclusion and internal refugees,that’s not relevant to the specific issues or legal arguments in this case and in any event,the government is dealing with this in the Eastern Region via the creation of 1200 additional traveller pitches by the end of 2011.
Winston Smith
says...
8:50am Tue 3 Mar 09
'Internal'? They are not British they are from Eire, which last time I looked was not part of Britain, and they are not refugees.
What are they seeking refuge from? Their £250,000 homes bought with cash at Hovefields? Their large houses in Rathkeale?
Or Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue?
Ironman
says...
9:58am Tue 3 Mar 09
When is someone going to bloodywell do something for chrissake!!
Soozie
says...
10:21am Tue 3 Mar 09
Why haven't these people been served with papers?
deadjim
says...
11:19am Tue 3 Mar 09
Soozie wrote:If papers were served while the H of L appeal application is being processed,the travellers would seek a high court injunction.
What I cannot figure out - Basildon council won the right to evict them legally and lawfully. Why hasn't the council done this? Why haven't these people been served with papers?
If granted,an injunction would stop BDC from enforcing until the outcome of the H of L appeal application was known.
It's what happened in 2005 - enforcement was postponed pending the outcome of the Judicial Review.
Soozie
says...
11:23am Tue 3 Mar 09
So this can drag on and on and on?
If these non travellers lose this round, which they will, what then?
deadjim
says...
11:40am Tue 3 Mar 09
Soozie wrote:What then ?
Thanks deadjim.. So this can drag on and on and on? If these non travellers lose this round, which they will, what then?
They might try going to the European Court of Human Rights. But case law at the ECHR is set firmly against them plus the timescale's probably too long for a further injunction to be granted in the UK stopping enforcement.
Hence today's propaganda.
thelonewhinger
says...
7:13pm Tue 3 Mar 09
When stories of "ethnic cleansing" and "organised kidnap of children" are out there unchallenged and letters are sent to the Press Complaints Commission demanding action against newspapers who have simply investigated and reported facts, is it any wonder that the do-good brigade start banging the tambourine and handing out more of our cash?
thelonewhinger
says...
7:36pm Tue 3 Mar 09
By accepting and agreeing the case that gypsy / travellers are entitled to be given special consideration for housing and embarking on the program for building vast numbers of specialist traveller sites they have introduced a perceived obligation to provide a specific alternative traveller caravan pitch for every one of the illegal families faced with eviction.
We have seen other cases recently where if it can be shown that some vague "human right" has been infringed, other laws are able to be overridden.
midnight warrior
says...
8:54pm Tue 3 Mar 09
I think deadjim makes a lot of sense and actually made me feel calmer over our impossible situation in having to exist while the judicial system makes a decision. It is ludicrous that this so called ethnic minority can actually expect to be excluded from the law. If they get away with that then it opens up the floodgates for other ethnic minorities to do the same. In actual fact we the settled residents are the ethnic minority in Crays Hill and Hovefields but do we get any special consideration, NO WE DO NOT! I just hope to God that justice will be done and that common sense and the law will be restored and my faith in the judicial system.
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hothead says...
7:51am Tue 3 Mar 09