ACTRESS and human rights campaigner Vanessa Redgrave has said "lives will be ruined" if the planned eviction of travellers from the UK's largest illegal site goes ahead.

Ms Redgrave took time off from filming Song for Marion to visit the Dale Farm site, where 96 traveller families face eviction.

Planning for a major policing operation is under way after eviction notices were served on 52 unauthorised plots following a decade-long planning row.

The deadline to leave voluntarily expires tonight and a forced eviction is expected to follow next month.

Ms Redgrave said she hoped violence could be avoided and that "humanity would triumph". The Oscar-winning actress said: "The whole situation is really about planning - there's no crime that has been committed.

"Evicting these families would be totally unreasonable and irresponsible. The council has said there are no alternatives but there are alternatives.

"The people of Dale Farm will go if there is an alternative site provided for them but Basildon Council will not sit down with these people and discuss that."