The largest Traveller site in the country with over a thousand residents, Dale Farm in Crays Hill, near Basildon and Wickford, Essex, is under threat of eviction. Basildon council will make a decision by the 28th of May, but have already paid bailiff company Constant and Co £20,000 to make a plan for eviction. The whole site is not facing immediate eviction but around 40 - 60 families are. The council is planning to spend a million and a half of ratepayers money to make these families homeless. After Dale Farm there really is nowhere to go.

Dale Farm has been a refuge in the last few years for families evicted from other sites. The impossible odds of actually receiving planning permission for Traveller sites (over 90% rate of refusal) means brutal and violent evictions across the country. The size of Dale Farm was an attempt to find safety in numbers, which is soon to be stripped away. The right wing press has made headlines in the last few months claiming that the Gypsy - Traveller community is using Human Rights law for their own benefit. The European Convention on Human Rights does protect the rights of communities to live in a way that is culturally significant to them, and also stops people being moved away from vital services. Children will lose their education through eviction, the ill will lose their medical treatment, the elderly will lose their care.

To join the campaign to support Dale Farm come to the meeting or visit
www.travellersupport.org.uk  info@travellersupport.org.uk