Dale Farm / Gypsies and Travellers / Eviction / Basildon / Leeds solicitors / Human Rights / Court of Appeal
Basildon Council has won its appeal against the High Court judgment. The Court of Appeal has overturned the findings of the lower Court that the Council’s actions to evict the residents of Dale Farm by direct action was unlawful.
The House of Lords refused a further appeal.
“As with so many conflicts both sides will no doubt claim victory,” said the residents’ solicitor Dr Keith Lomax, LLP member in the Leeds firm of solicitors Davies Gore Lomax LLP.
Dale Farm is the largest Gypsy and Traveller site in Britain, and possibly the largest in Europe. A large part of it has planning permission. The rest is an unauthorised encampment on land that was previously a huge vehicle scrap yard. This has been bought and cleared up and turned into a site by Travellers who have nowhere legal to live. The problem is that this old scrap yard lies in ‘Green Belt’, although it’s far from ‘green’.
The Court action started in July 2005, when we obtained an injunction stopping Basildon Council from evicting the families from their homes. At the eleventh hour we stopped the bailiffs who were about to force everyone out of their homes and demolish the site.
However, in December 2007, the Council made another decision. It was much like the original one, but at that time the residents were not threatened with homelessness because the injunction was in place, and the High Court hearing had yet to take place.
The Council then submitted to the Court that it would take into account its homelessness duties under the law, once ‘homelessness’ arose.
The Court of Appeal has now said the Council still has to decide what action to take and how, when, and against whom. The decisions are not over yet.
“We will have to await the Council’s further decisions, and see,” said Dr. Lomax. Further Court challenges and appeals may yet be necessary. It is hoped that the Council now acts reasonably and thinks very carefully before sending in the bulldozers to clear the entire site. That would mean throwing off all the disabled, the elderly, the mentally ill, children and young babies with nowhere lawful they can go to.
“Surely, if every family in a tower block were to be evicted in this way, there would be an outcry. Is it different when the people are Gypsies or Irish Travellers?
“The victory for the Council is that they have won their case at the Court of Appeal. So what is our victory?
“We have achieved protection for hundreds of people since July 2005. The sick and disabled residents have had continuity of health care. The children have had the opportunity of education. Community facilities have been developed. There has been stability.
“We have also achieved the need for the Council to make its decisions and take into account the reality of homelessness and what will have to be done to meet the needs of this huge number of families. It can’t just send in the bulldozers without further ado, which is what the Council was going to do back in 2005."
The High Court judgment found that the Council had discriminated unlawfully against the travellers. That finding was not challenged in the appeal.
During the course of the Court case the East of England Regional Assembly determined that Basildon Council needs to provide 81 additional plots for Gypsies and Travellers. The Planning Inspectorate as recently submitted to the Secretary of State that 71 pitches are needed. Even a requirement to provide 62 pitches is rejected by theCouncil which has issued proceedings against the Secretary of State in its effort to provide nothing more.
So far the Council has yet to provide a single additional plot.
“Now, Basildon Council, it is up to you. People need places to live. Whilst it looks forward to providing around 10,000 homes why can’t it get on and provide the tiny number of pitches needed for its Traveller residents?
“The same goes for all Councils across the country. Site provision is the answer, not endless evictions onto the open road. Stop passing the buck.”