THE fate of 90 traveller families living illegally at Dale Farm has been sealed after Basildon Council agreed the final funds for the £18million eviction.

Council chiefs have agreed to press on with the plan, despite impassioned pleas to negotiate an alternative solution.

About 20 travellers and campaigners waved banners outside the Basildon Centre last night as councillors voted on giving up to £1.2million to Essex Police to help cover its £10million costs.

Council leader Tony Ball told the meeting the eviction must proceed if families do not leave by choice. The Tory said the breaches of planning at the illegal green belt encampment had gone on far too long.

He said: “What is the alternative? Do nothing. If we did we would have anarchy in the green belt. Then if someone built a house in the green belt, would we just leave it?"

Tory veteran Tony Archer added the extreme cost could be avoided if travellers moved off by choice. He said: “You can’t pick and choose which laws you obey. I find it deplorable what these people are doing.”

But Basildon’s youngest councillor has branded the Tory eviction plan “disgusting”.

Labour’s Andrew Gordon, 18, said during his maiden speech at the meeting: “We are talking about people, not objects. Why won’t you find them somewhere else? I find it disgusting to do this when we are talking about all these cuts and austerity. You are calling them criminals.”

Turning to the Tory councillors he said: “The only criminals I can see are sitting over there.”

But 27 Tory councillors carried the vote, opposed by 12 Labour and Lib Dems Angry travellers vowed to resist the bailiffs as they left the building after the vote.

Another said: “We’ll be waiting for the bailiffs. You will never beat the gipsies.”

The council is expected to soon serve eviction notices giving families 28 days to leave.

Before the meeting, families from the illegal Crays Hill site were joined by Labour south Essex MEP Richard Howitt at the demo.

He said: “I am deeply anxious to have stood up against the forced eviction of Roma communities in France and Italy, and want to be certain that the law is being respected on all sides.”

Traveller Mary Ann McCarthy said there would be a fight if the bailiffs go in and she and her 22 grandchildren would resist the eviction in their mobile home.