The Labour Leader in Mid-Bedfordshire County Council has called for a Judicial Review of the money the council has spent in pursuing the eviction of 27 families including a community of Romany gypsies living on a piece of land at Woodside, near Sandy, it emerged last night (Thursday 31st October).

Cllr. Paul Griffiths said in last night’s Council meeting that serious questions need to be asked about whether the Council has justified the costs of the High Court Action to enforce the eviction of the community at Woodside. The 27 families who own the 17 acre site have been denied planning permission to live on their land after losing a two-year appeal that was decided upon by the Secretary of State, the deputy prime minister John Prescott earlier this year. The local Mid Beds. Council succeeded in their application at the High Court to have the 27 families evicted from their land by the 1st November, with a one-week reprieve allowed to the Codona family to allow time for them to await acknowledgement about whether they have succeeded in their push for their own Judicial Review into why this action should ever have gone to the High Court in the first place. The grounds that the Codonas make for this Judicial Review is that the Council have pursued a reversal of an original ruling at Public Enquiry which they argue went in their favour, through the subsequent use of discredited information and a campaign of intimidation and lies.

As is the case with all indigenous communities throughout the world, the Romanies feel that due to shortcomings over literacy, they additionally feel that their ability to engage in the whole legal process has been seriously compromised and their human rights abused in that the council and the local planning authority have not properly taken into consideration their special needs throughout this legal process - including 3 public enquiries and a High Court summons.

The 17 acre site was bought by the community for £300,000 in 1997. Planning Permission for the 27 families was denied at the first Public Enquiry. However, in his judgement, the judge recommended to the council that “18 families should remain living on the site”. The judge made it clear in summing up that he “would have recommended granting planning permission to the other nine families living on the site, but was unable to do so because they were not represented at the public enquiry”. One-year later, families on the site pursued the extension of this planning permission for the land to accommodate the further nine families. However, the local council - lobbied by one local resident from the hamlet of Hatch pursuing an inflammatory campaign against the community, succeeded in overturning the previous judgement having embarked on a multi-pronged attack on the legitimacy of the court’s original ruling, including unsubstantiated allegation regarding the Romany’s sanitation and public health on the site, as well as providing information that the area was “prone to flooding”, evidence which they hadn’t deemed important enough to mention at the previous public enquiry. However, new evidence has now emerged from the Environment Agency in the form of a Flood Risk Analysis Survey conducted in June 2002, showing that Woodside is outside the area susceptible to flooding and that this land would flood only once every 1,000 years.

More details emerged about the people behind the campaign to evict the 27 families. At last night’s council meeting (Thursday 31st Cctober, 2002), a group of Romanies put their case in what could be a final attempt to stave off eviction. The case against the Romanies was put to the council by a solitary local resident who had been and continues to work closely with the council’s head of public relations, Mark Hustwitt. After the meeting, the local resident from the small hamlet of Hatch said: “These Romanies live like animals, they have been seen, on at least two occasions, defecating on the main road adjoining the property”. “They have no sanitation up there. How would you like people like that living near you.” In fact, the Romanies have good sanitation, with flush toilets and water/electricity points provided for each pitch. The site also has roads, electricity, water and telephones. Family plots and caravans are neatly fenced off. There is a paddock for the horses and a peaceful copse at the back.
When asked what particular problems his family had from his new Romany neighbours, he declined to answer, saying “I don’t want to get into a slanging match”, at which point Mark Hustwitt intervened, advising him not to say any more.

Mark Hustwitt, recently appointed the council’s head of Public Relations, has taken a leading role against the Romanies in this whole saga. Rather than acting as an impartial arbiter between the council and the press, he is helping co-ordinate a campaign against the Romanies. This is particularly worrying since he is chairman of the Mid-Beds branch of UNISON, the Trade-Union representing Local Government and Public Sector workers. His highly partial role in this saga seems entirely at odds with UNISON membership’s official support for travellers rights.

The further argument against the community’s fight to get planning permission was turned down on the grounds that the caravan site “does not blend in with the environment”. However, in 1990, Planning Permission was granted for a caravan touring park with 4 large utility buildings, a bungalow and a DIY shop. In fact, this evidence may reveal more clearly the deeper agenda underlying why there exists a concerted campaign to prevent this community from living at Woodside. There is a strong argument for this land being classed as development land due to the existence of this planning permission. The land is looking at a potential development value of £1.2 million, with the prospect of a series of further planning applications for further incremental development on the site pushing the value up to a possible £10.7 million.


Mark Hustwitt, Mid Beds. Council Head of Public Relations: 01525 842014 (direct line).
Mid Beds. council UNISON Office, John Phillipson: 01525 842034 (direct line).