Protesters and residents watch the press from the iconic scaffolding tower at the main gate of the travellers site - Dale Farm, Cray's Hill, basildon, Essex. 19th September 2011. Photo: Graham M. Lawrence.
The legalities concerning the eviction of residents from the Dale Farm traveller’s site are complex. It seems that about 40 or 50 years ago the land on which the site exists was a ten metre deep hollow in the flat Essex landscape and was apparently used as a landfill site by Basildon Council to dump surplus hard core and waste from the construction of the nearby A127 highway. This landfill brought the site up to the level of the surrounding land. During the ten years that the travellers have been on this land, planning permission to build has been rejected on the premise that it was designated 'green belt' - land set aside to retain the rural nature of specific areas of Britain. Recent High Court judgements ruled that if Basildon Council were to make this claim then the land would need to be returned to its original state with the hard core removed. Also, five of the fifty or so plots have been ruled to be legal, the dwellings can stay but the hard core must go. To complicate matters, some fences and walls can remain and if damaged or removed in the process of digging the hard core they must be replaced to the original height. Finally, a portion of the original scrapyard which has a tarmac base can remain. Effectively this means that the whole site will become an egg box with some areas ten metres lower than the surrounding land with caravans returned to them on fresh mud base and ten metre fences rebuilt around them to the original height. Before the eviction started it was estimated that costs had soared to £22,000,000. The eviction itself with huge riot police and security presence over the last month will possibly add another£10,000,000, and the excavating and removal of the hard core is estimated at £2,500,000 per plot, a total of £125,000,000. This money will come out of tax payer’s pockets at a time of deep recession and austerity.
Size: 3492px × 5250px
Location: Cray’s Hill, near Basildon, Essex, UK, Europe.
Photo credit: © Graham M. Lawrence / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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