A SICK and elderly traveller has made an emotional plea to council chiefs not to turf her out of her home when bailiffs move in on Europe’s biggest illegal traveller site.

Nora Sheridan, 84, of Dale Farm, Crays Hill, is asking for a late reprieve and says she may even put in a fresh planning application before bulldozers move in.

Mrs Sheridan has sent a letter to Bala Mahendran, Basildon Council’s council chief executive, which starts with the question: “Do you want to kill an old lady?”

Mrs Sheridan has suffered breast cancer and heart problems and warns in the letter she could die if evicted.

Her letter says she is desperately sick, but discharged herself from Basildon Hospital so she could live with relatives who are caring for her, including her son, Dan.

The letter adds: “I do not have long to live, I know that.

“You can choose, if you pity an old lady, to delay carrying out your eviction of me and my son. Will you please do that?”

She argues her caravan pitch – the first illegal plot in Oak Lane after the legal section of the site – is a special case because it is surrounded on three sides by homes which do have planning permission.

The other properties include a Crays Hill villager’s home, opposite, in Oak Road.

Mrs Sheridan’s letter goes on: “Can you please explain in clear English, why your council is so keen to have me off this little bit of green belt land, when you are allowing people to live on properties to the west, north and east.

“Why are you going to kill me to get it cleared?

“Please advise as to whether it would help my situation if I were to make a planning application for this ground.”

She has also put in a request under the Freedom of Information asking for written information about the way the eviction will be carried out.

Travellers’ campaigner Grattan Puxon, who helped draft the letter, added: “Mrs Sheridan is asking if anyone is willing, when the time comes, to come and stay in her yard with her.”

Council leader Tony Ball said the letter would be taken into account, but stressed if fresh planning applications were made, it would not affect the enforcement process.