TRAVELLERS who claim they have nowhere to go are living next to an almost empty legal camp.

About half of Dale Farm has planning permission and it is the illegal site which is being bulldozed.

A community of Irish travellers known as the Sheridan Clan own both, but most of the 40 legal plots are only occupied for one month each year.

Aerial pictures taken of the site this week show evidence of just six being occupied, leaving 34 vacant.

The Echo photographed many of these with boarded windows, padlocked gates and overgrown yards.

Basildon Council leader Tony Ball said officers used empty homes legislation to contact owners to find out why they were empty and see if those on illegal pitches could rent them.

He said: “The information we got back through various means, including travellers on Dale Farm and representative Candy Sheridan, is empty plots are being used sometimes and not available to anyone else. I was told most are only occupied one month each year, but it would be considered trespass if others moved on.”

He said it cast doubt on repeated claims of a drastic shortage of sites in Basildon and nowhere else for people at Dale Farm.

The travellers’ response contradicts evidence given in planning inquiries, when it was said they were a close-knit community, with relatives on the legal site who would help each other out.

Ramsden Crays parish councillor David McPherson-Davis, said: “It is rather strange these pitches lay empty so often when we are told there is such a shortage, and where are the owners?”

The Echo contacted Mrs Sheridan, but got no response.

A source involved in the travellers’ campaign said if the £18million eviction goes ahead, occupants at Dale Farm will move on to the legal part.

He said: “They have been cleared a long time ago, so if it comes to it and they are forced from Dale Farm, they will be able to move just a few hundred metres.”

When asked where the legal owners were, he said: “On holiday.”