Chair of Britain's recently established
Gypsy Forum Cliff Codona, himself a victim
of a racially-motivated eviction, says the
long-awaited change in UK policy just
announced falls far short of meeting
Travellers' needs.

While pressing councils to designate
land for future caravan parks, the latest
advisory does nothing to end the vicious
cycle of move-on operations and direct
action evictions that are destroying the
lives of thousands of families, says
Codona.

With delegates from forty other
countries, Codona and fellow UK Gypsy
representative Kay Beard, last month
thrashed out a set of proposals at the
European Roma and Travellers Forum
which would outlaw direct action evictions
and compel local authorities to pass
planning applications or provide
acceptable alternative sites.

"We agreed in Strasbourg to stop
such evictions," Codona told Ustipen.
"The Council of Europe endorsed our
blue-print for reform and now we want
the UK Government to accept these
recommendations."

He has written to Prescott seeking
an urgent meeting to discuss how new
government policy can best be
reconciled with the Forum's view that
local councils must not be allowed to
go on using planning regulations as a
smokescreen for ethnic-cleansing.

Codona quotes his own case where
Mid-Beds council turned down his plan
for a model Romani heritage centre. Despite
having earlier licensed the site for holiday
caravans, the Tory-led council hired
self-styled Gypsy eviction specialists Constant
& Co to bulldoze the l4-acre property.

More recently, Basildon council has
voted to spend up to 5 million euro
employing Constant to destroy 86 homes
at Dale Farm, Essex, the largest Travellers'
community in the UK. Forum member Richard
Sheridan has welcomed John Prescott's proposal
for alternative land to be set aside at Pitsea.
But he points out that between l5 and 25
million euro in public money could be saved
simply by leaving Dale Farm families where
they are.

"I think the government needs to take
a reality check," comments Sheridan. "If
Basildon evicts us they'll have the police
drive the lot us into the next county
before the proposed Pitsea site is even
agreed on."

Meanwhile, the Commission for
Racial Equality has as good as said Tory
leader Malcolm Buckley's eviction plan
is racially tainted. It has decided to back
a judicial review of the Buckley plan sought
earlier by Sheridan and other Dale Farm
residents.

Next month 40 yard-owners will
mount an appeal against Basildon's
repeated refusal of retrospective
planning approval. The final decision
rests with Prescott, who has so far
limited consent to a two-year and
one-year temporary extension.

Forum members say they will continue
their front-line campaign to plug the
gap between long-term government aims
and their immediate needs. As a first step
they are seeking a moratorium on
evictions and a ban on the employment
of bully-boy outfits like Constant & Co.,
whom they accuse of burning and
looting Gypsy property all over Britain.