Dale Farm, Travellers in Basildon.

[xolily]

so a huge part of the site was approved, and the rest wasn't? why wasn't it approved? makes no sense to me.

 

[Pramaholic86]

What an obscene waste of money.

 

[summer rain]

I think they should be allowed to stay, there are quite a few Irish traveller and romany sites near to us and they really don't cause any problem, in all my run-ins with them they are very polite people who take good care of their surroundings, maybe I feel a bit more sympathetic to them since I found out some of my direct ancestors a few generations back were gypsies and travellers, who knows?

 

[Laura2919]

Xolily the site that they arent allowed to live in is green belt. You cannot build places to live on green belt although you can run a business so before they bought the land it was a scrap yard or something, they explained the reasons but I cant remember. They knew they werent allowed to build and they went ahead anyway, they definitely shouldnt be allowed to stay there. Because they are travellers the rules dont apply to them. I think there are thousands of people who have applied for planning permission and have had it turned down. Its not like they werent given other places to live they turned them down.

You can read all of it on Wikipedia.

 

[Blah11]

I think they should be allowed to stay, there are quite a few Irish traveller and romany sites near to us and they really don't cause any problem, in all my run-ins with them they are very polite people who take good care of their surroundings, maybe I feel a bit more sympathetic to them since I found out some of my direct ancestors a few generations back were gypsies and travellers, who knows?

Thats not really the point though is it? Theyre still breaking the law, regardless of how polite they are whilst doing it.

 

[summer rain]

I think they should be allowed to stay, there are quite a few Irish traveller and romany sites near to us and they really don't cause any problem, in all my run-ins with them they are very polite people who take good care of their surroundings, maybe I feel a bit more sympathetic to them since I found out some of my direct ancestors a few generations back were gypsies and travellers, who knows?

Thats not really the point though is it? Theyre still breaking the law, regardless of how polite they are whilst doing it.

I'm not saying thats why they should be allowed to stay, though all the sites near me are fully legal and actually run by the councils concerned. But more so the fact that kicking them out and rehoming them is going to cause a massive upheavel to others, not to mention the financial cost. Did the council never visit the site in the very early days when the travellers started building it and erecting buildings illegally? Surely they did and surely they could have nipped the problem in the bud immediately-it would have saved everyone so much hassle and stopped taxpayers money being wasted.

 

[bumpy_j]

can't judge cos i'm not living there the ones round here are horrible tbh, a huge group crashed my OHs friends party, on a two on one ratio, just to attack them. my OH ended up stabbed and so did his friend. the one who stabbed my OH has a baby. they continually threatened to kill him afterwards. also he's been mugged a few times, some forty year old traveler used to follow him to school and throw eggs at him every day for no reason - he was about eleven at the time. my OHs mum was also mugged by a group of young lads from their area right outside her house. they're been here for five generations so they've all moved into houses near eachother now. the main family among them them is completely infamous around here for drug dealing. but i know you can't tarnish a whole group of people with the same brush so have no prejudices against gypsies as a whole but all i'm saying is that unless you live next to them, you can't say they cause no trouble either. I'm very divided about the whole situation! it's sad but if they have ever caused problems for other residents I would then have no qualms about their eviction.

 

[Nibblenic]

As someone who is going through the mill trying to get a little kitchen extension built on green belt land and getting nowhere!

Theyve broken the law, they are costing lots of money. Move them on.

 

[tallybee]

They're costing a lot of money because the council wants the eviction, to me that's the council costing the public a lot of money

What will it gain?

Of course it's not OK to just let people do what they want, but the whole thing has been handled abominably

 

[princess_bump]

From someone who lives around 40 minutes away, and who's husband works relatively close I'm very glad they are evicting them!

It's taken this long because they have been trying to evict them for 10 years. Unfortunately it costs this much because they wont leave!!!! This week they are preparing for a siege to stay, with more travellers arriving, for which i can only say is a fight!

They are there illegally and for me, they do no good for the area. As already said, it's green belt land and was originally granted for a small group of travellers who cause no bother! once another group joined there they do cause trouble!

surely it's not being a true 'traveller' if you don't actual move on? they pay NO council tax etc, why should they stay? being provided for the BY the tax payers of the area?

what about the crime rate of the area? super controversial i'm sure but it's always spoken about in relation to these sites i'm afraid! i'm the first one to dismiss crime rates tbh as they aren't an accurate representation of crime, say like amount of reported domestic violence or the unrepresentative of white collar crime in statistics but this sites seems to correlate with more crime.

I don't think the council should provide alternative accommodation either, if they have jobs, why not pay rent or mortgage like the rest of the country does. i don't see that it's fair they can just pull up here and claim the land as there own. we were actually driving down the a130 close(ish) to the site today and if we were suddenly to park and build our house on the side of the lovely land that is there we would be evicted. it's against the law. i don't see why there is another law for these people tbh.

 

[Missy86]

What will happen to the land once they get them of it

 

[Pramaholic86]

What will happen to the land once they get them of it

The council will have to spend a few more thousand pounds clearing up all the rubbish they will undoubtedly leave behind!

 

[Missy86]

they will still own it though

 

[SKATERBUN]

There was a debate about this on some BBC morning show this morning. After hearing about it I think they should stay, if the council are not assed to sort out brownfield land and utilize it for good use then its their own fault..

 

[Laura2919]

They're costing a lot of money because the council wants the eviction, to me that's the council costing the public a lot of money

What will it gain?

Of course it's not OK to just let people do what they want, but the whole thing has been handled abominably

But why should they stay because its costing money!

Every other person who has put in for planning permission and was turned down would be like being slapped in the face. Just because its costing money!

 

[Laura2919]

they will still own it though

Yeah but it will have to stay as green belt

They knew that when the brought it. Should have thought about it beforehand

 

[princess_bump]

Personally they brought it because the no green belt is cheaper because of no planning permission (it normal circumstances it would never be granted), i don't see why they should get away with breaking the law!

what bugs me is if other people did this, they wouldn't get away with it. for example, a few years ago my parents wanted to buy a small piece of land for storage (my father has a building company) nothing big and nothing that was a blot on the landscape. they checked with the council BEFORE buying and said no planning permission would be granted. these people try to bend/break the law by applying for retrospective planning permission. this is not fair on the wider population!!

they have now asked the council to 'buy' the land from them for 6 million WAY over market value!! obviously this has been turned down! since when did people living someone ILLEGALLY think it's ok to make a massive profit.

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

What worries me is where they will all go :/

 

[xolily]

it's in the news today that alot of them own houses in ireland.. being made homeless my arse

 

[kirmal12]

it's in the news today that alot of them own houses in ireland.. being made homeless my arse

Now why doesn't that surprise me!.