PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY - ESPECIALLY IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT!
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PROTECT PREGNANT MOTHER<
Contact:
Cliff Codona 01767689736
National Travelers Action Group
Residents at Meadowlands: 07721081000
Following the successful stopping of an eviction recently at Coventry,
Travellers are preparing to resist an assault on another private caravan park
this time in Essex.
Chelmsford Borough Council is bent on the destruction of
the Meadowlands Caravan Park, at Cranham Road, Little Waltham.
Contractors have been hired to evict families, including a young pregnant mother and a disabled man. Council official Catherine Lyons, who has a reputation for harassing Travellers, says the
operation will start at 8 am next Monday (26 Jan).
They will also try to bulldozer the entire caravan park - because it was built without planning permission in a greenbelt area.
Yet a similar though council-owned caravan park
exists close by - for
which Chelmsford presumnably awarded itself planning consent.
The residents of Meadowlands have dug deep ditches and surrounded their land with earth banks - and intend to resist the bulldozing of their homes. Last week, all the residents including Ann Connor who is six months pregnant, registered as homeless. They told the council they do not want houses but another piece of land to live on if they can't stay where they are. "Everyone who can should join us" said Cliff Codona, chair of the NTAG. "We will form a human shield to protect this pregnant young mother" The NTAG believe stopping evictions (by non-violent human shield) may persuade councils to give up
their policy of using force - and jog the Government into making it easier for Travelers to obtain planning consent for private caravan parks.
At present 98 percent of planning applications by Travellers are turned down.
However some 75 MPs recently signed an early day motion calling
on the Government to bring in legislation that would re-instate a duty on local authorities to provide caravan parks and facilitate the setting up of private ones.
You are invited to come to Meadowlands on Sunday (25 January)
to take part in a rally in support of the residents. Warm fires
and hot tea will be laid on. Call 01206 523 528 for details.
Kevin McNamara, Labour MP for Hull, said last week in Parliament
that it was time the Government tackled these issues.
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Call the Councillor!
25.01.2004 16:57
The Chair of Chelmsford Borough Council is Roy Whitehead:
He can be contacted as:
or by telephone:
01268 710340
Please call now and ask for the eviction to be called off.
stop-eviction
Update 27th January 2004
27.01.2004 13:48
Bailiffs entered the site and were met with a barrage of bricks and physical assault. Two were hospitalized and three hit by flying bricks. Nonetheless the eviction was carried out without injury to any travellers and by 7.30 p.m. the site was cleared.
Tim Walker