Basildon Council leader demands study into traveller sites

1:16pm Tuesday 26th February 2008

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A NEW study of the number of traveller sites needed across the region is being demanded.

Under East of England Regional Assembly recommendations, Basildon would have to bear the brunt of south Essex's provision with 81 new caravan pitches.

Southend and Castle Point, which currently has no legal sites, would provide 15.

At a Basildon Council meeting on Thursday, councillors will vote on a Tory motion to call for a new study into the need for sites.

Basildon already has 116 legal pitches and a similar number of illegal ones.

The assembly agreed districts with high numbers of unauthorised sites, like Basildon, should provide the bulk of the new plots.

But council leader Malcolm Buckley said a new study was needed because of flaws in how the numbers were worked out.

He said: "Firstly, it is unfair districts with high numbers of illegal sites should provide more, when they already have legal sites, while areas like Southend, with no sites, provide only the minimum.

"The second issue is the validity of the studies carried out.

"The need for new pitches was based on unauthorised pitches, but our caravan count in the summer found half of the plots at Dale Farm, in Crays Hill, were unoccupied.

"There is also evidence of some travellers owning more than one plot each, so the number of sites actually needed could be distorted. We need more in-depth studies to assess what the real level of need in the region is."

Paul Kirkman, Labour councillor for Fryerns, who also sits on the regional assembly and voted in favour of Basildon taking 81 new pitches, said: "The Tories tried putting forward this motion at the assembly and were laughed out of the room.

"We can't just go back to the drawing board. The travellers need to live somewhere."

THE BOSS of the bailiff firm on standby to evict hundreds of travellers has hit back at criticism from a High Court judge.

The methods of Constant & Co was called into question by Mr Justice Andrew Collins during the judicial review of Basildon Council's decision to evict travellers from Dale Farm, in Crays Hill, and Hovefields, in Wickford.

The judge spoke out after watching video footage of a previous eviction involving the firm, filmed by campaigners for the travellers.

However, Bryan Lecoche, manager of Constant & Co, said: "I am disappointed he was prepared to accept a one sided story. The truth is vastly different."

In one scene, an elderly traveller, now living at Dale Farm, was seen under the wheels of a vehicle.

Mr Lecoche claimed: "The traveller in question threw himself under the wheels in an attempt to block its progress and was pulled out by police and bailiffs."

He said his staff behaved in a "controlled and non-aggressive" way, despite facing violent attacks.

He added: "Staff have been verbally and physically abused, spat at and had bricks thrown at them causing head injuries and broken teeth.

"One bailiff had a piece of timber thrust into his knee causing a serious injury. Three years later, he still walks with a stick and has never returned to work."

"We are not anti-traveller. We deal with them most days of the week and can relate to them and their ways.

"We have met good and bad travellers and, generally speaking, have had few problems."