Monday 14 February 2011

Dale Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Dale Farm is part of an Irish Traveller site on Oak Lane in Crays Hill, Essex built on a former scrap yard and housing over 1,000 people. It is the largest Irish Traveller site in the UK[1] and has been the subject of a dispute as to the legality of the site. The land is owned by the Travellers and has since been reclassified as green belt. Dale Farm is exclusively occupied by members of the Irish Traveller community, whose cultural roots are in the town of Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland.

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[edit] History of the dispute

Local Authorities used to be legally obliged to provide sites for travellers under the Caravan Sites Act 1968. This obligation was removed in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The Commission for Racial Equality says that this has led to there being too few sites to accommodate all travellers.[2]

According to the Commission for Racial Equality, 12% of traveller caravans at Dale Farm are on land owned by travellers but without planning permission. They say that 90% of traveller planning applications are initially rejected compared to 20% overall.[citation needed]

Dale Farm was started in the 1970s when the then Labour-run Basildon District Council gave planning permission to 40 families. Following the eviction of other sites, the site contains about 100 families. Dale Farm is owned by the Sheridan clan of travellers but has been refused planning permission by the local council. Basildon Council's Development Control Committee recommended in June 2005 that up to £5 million be spent on paying private contractors to bulldoze part of the site and returning it to greenbelt.[3]

There is currently an eviction order on the site. As of March 2009 an appeal to the House Of Lords is pending following the loss of the appeal against the eviction in the High Court. The campaign to save the village at Dale Farm has been supported by political parties, church and community groups, human rights organisations and grass roots activist groups and individuals. The Peace and Progress Party called a meeting at parliament in June 2006, following which actor and activist Corin Redgrave collapsed at a council meeting at Basildon Town Hall. More recently, the Commission for Racial Equality issued a statement to the effect that the eviction order is racially motivated.[4]

[edit] Trivia

January 2011.

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[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

via en.wikipedia.org

I hope you win your battle Dale Farm

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