Protesters put up the barricades

It comes amid claims Southend and Basildon hospitals will no longer send midwives to the camp due to safety fears.

Basildon Council was notified by campaigners at the weekend of four Dale Farm residents being hospitalised, including cancer sufferer Cornelius Sheridan, in his fifties, and pregnant mothers.

The e-mail from traveller respresentatives to the council claimed health services will no longer attend.

It also warned of a woman who cares for her mother with dementia threatening suicide due to stress.

Len Gridley, 52, whose house backs on to the site, said men were working on top of a scaffold barricade that towers above his back fence.

There are thought to be up to 100 protesters living there.

About half are said to be Cambridge University students.

A source said relations between travellers and supporters was not as harmonious as being played out in media.

The source said: “Some of the families are packed and ready to go because they can’t cope with outsiders turning the place into a fortress and all the media.

“Some could actually move off because of this.”

The source said some travellers were willing to stay and fight, but others were not relishing living under siege if they try to keep out police and bailiffs. Protesters are said to be sleeping on scaffolding towers to keep constant watch for bailiffs. Others are said to be burrowing underground and using old fridges to protect themselves to create obstacles.

A Jewish solidarity group yesterday visited Dale Farm to show support.

A workshop was held by activists who advocate no border controls between countries.

Rabbi Janet Burden said: “I believe the obligation to protect this ethnic minority’s way of life is a human rights issue that, in this particular and unusual case, may need to trump the planning law designed to protect green belt.”

A United Nations committee on forced evictions, chaired by Yves Cabannes, a professor at UCL London, will hold a meeting at the site on September 14.