Meadowlands Travellers Evicted

People being kicked off land which they own, and then having their dwellings burned out. We must be talking about Palestine. Er, no - Essex.

On Monday the travellers’ site at Meadowlands near Chelmsford was evicted - with four arrests - forcing 30 people off land they had been on since 2001.

To do the dirty work Chelmsford Council brought in self-proclaimed ‘gypsy and squatter eviction’ specialists Constant And Co, who had to get past earth banks, barricades and ditches, plus the travellers and supporters to clear the site. Constant didn’t want to lose two in a row after travellers in Bulkington near Coventry successfully defended their self-owned site several weeks before, which gave the 150 residents a reprieve.

When the bailiffs took the site on Monday, it was agreed, after negotiations, that ten caravans were to be taken by Constant to another site at Epsom. This never happened – instead by the end of the following day several caravans had been burned out on the roadside where Constant left them after briefly towing them out. A witness with a camera visited on Tuesday to see the smouldering ruins of peoples’ homes, and was intimidated by Constant staff who claimed that the caravans were torched – by the travellers themselves! - at 3am on Monday night. A supporter who stayed in one of the caravans on Monday night contradicted this ridiculous claim. Now travellers are trying to get a straight answer from the Chelmsford Council as to why Constant never delivered the caravans to the Epsom site. It makes us wonder… we know Constant are the ‘gypsy and squatter’ eviction specialists, now we’d like to know who the covert arson specialists are.

To compensate for the inconvenience of being made homeless Chelmsford Council set up a “homeless office” in nearby Great Waltham at the parish hall, but omitted to tell the travellers and anyway there was a roadblock stopping them getting there. A few travellers were then sent to the Silverwood motel in Essex, but after only two nights, and during mid winter snowfall, they are being forced to provide ID, proof of income, and proof of links to the Meadowlands site, for the hospitality to continue. And for extra convenience dogs are not allowed at Silverwood. Plus there is a chance that the council will exercise their legal right to repossess the land to pay for the eviction – the eviction cost £100,000 and the site is worth £90,000.

Now we know that it’s the middle of winter and all that but Meadowlands could have been saved if there’d been more support at the eviction. But this is not a one-off – counties up and down the country have long-held campaigns to rid their area of travellers, whether they be Romany or so-called ‘new age’. For instance two self owned sites near Epping - Hamlet Hill and Paynes Lane – are under threat of eviction and urgently need help. Another site that needs support is the traveller-owned Dale Farm near Basildon – home to over 1,000! – which is a virtual village with established gardens and dwellings (albeit without planning permission). The local Tory MP is soon to meet Tory Tony himself to seek extra powers to enforce an eviction. In Totnes travellers are being forced onto an ‘authorised’ council site next to a busy road about which they were not even consulted.

Travellers are struggling to have the right to live on land they own – yet countless developments and roads get rubber stamped all the time on public land.

* Contact 01206 523528  ustiben.5@ntlworld.com or National Travellers Action Group 01767689736

* Romani Congress 2004 www.lafn.org/~romanokongreso

* For recent history of travellers in Britain see  http://tash.gn.apc.org/

* Please don’t pester Constant And Co who are doing a great job of ethnically cleansing Britain. 66 Harpur Street, Bedford, 01234 340091 www.constantand.co.uk  constant@kbnet.co.uk