UN and Amnesty International warn of 'grave breach of human rights' about to take place in Essex

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Dale Farm eviction set to go ahead next week

Its an ex fucking scrapyard for crying out loud. Hardly a rural idyll to be protected at all costs from development

Everyone needs somewere to live - councils don't provide sufficient sites, so these people have bought their own site, and yet still they are made to move on. As many as 110 children could now be made homeless.

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Well, I think its serious shit when the UN and Amnesty get involved.

[violetwellies]

By offering council housing - inappropriate for traveler families who wish to remain in mobile accommodation - the council will be able to absolve themselves of any responsibilty when the families want pitches for their caravans - & they can be pretty sure they won't live in the housing offered.

[sakura]

travellers, just like other vulnerable groups (women, minorities) are treated like dirt by men in power

basically

they want them in houses, under control and under the thumb

[sakura]

they want them to become good little consumers.

[sakura]

god I'm so angry. Those travellers do nothing to harm the environment compared to the damage your average middle class home wreaks, what with its washing detergents and foreign holidays and tat from China.

[crazynanna]

It makes my blood boil!

[conculainey]

I fail to understand how an EX scrapyard obtained retrospective green field status when people are living there in the first place, whats the betting that a greedy developer will get the land and given a free reign to build overpriced apartments on it once the travellers/owners of the land are forced out?

[eaglewings]

Am out if the UK at the mo otherwise I'd want to be there to picket.

The traveler community in our village is well accepted and I just wish they would be treated like humans in all of Essex

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Oh phew, other people think its important too.

I don't get wtf they expect Travellers to do - I mean, nothing is good enough is it? Where are they meant to go? They have to live somewhere, we can't just expect them to be erased from society

[MilaMae]

So should we all be able to ignore planning regulations then ie be able to build anything we choose?

Sorry little confused.Why is it ok for travellers to build what they like and not others?I know quite a few people turned down re planning,they were all well aware if they did build it would be taken down. We've not bought houses due to planning restrictions.

I'm aware I may be missing something,happy to be set straight.

[coccyx]

No they want perks of society, so do what the rest of us have to do. Get planning permission. Jog on, but not anywhere near me

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

I will find the exact figures out, but from memory 60/70% of planning applications are usually successful - but when the application is made by Travellers, that drops to something like 10%, rising to 30% on appeal.

So getting planning permission isn't that simple.

[madhattershouse]

I get the feeling that this is why there are groups of travellers arriving in my nearest town. They are going to lend their support. It will get very "messy" when they try to evict. It's okay to build flats one on top of the other (maybe not quite the right phrase IYSWIM ) with no outside space or ameneties, but if you are a traveller...naff off. It's the council tax they are thinking of, get them into permanent accomodation and they can charge them for it. It's all about the money

[Islandlady]

madhatter I believe that travellers on permanant sites with planning permission do actually have to pay council tax

[madhattershouse]

Oh island, you learn something every day!! Still the councils never seem to want travellers on their "patch". Sounds like racial descrimination to me, distant relatives of mine were romany gypsies, where did it become so bad that they are all hated and descriminated against, real gypsies, travellers, are just people with a different way of life. I still believe that blocks of flats would bring in more revenue and the councils would agree to that like a shot!

[MilaMae]

Hmmm maybe they get turned down more because far more numbers are involved on a site,it effects the wider community and in the past travellers haven't adhered to rules.

Rules are there to protect everybody and the community. Perhaps much of the land travellers get turned down for is cheap because it has planning restrictions ie others don't buy because they know they too would get turned down.

I don't get why my kids can't buy a piece of cheap land (that has planning restrictions) and just build on it regardless.I live in a very beautiful expensive area.I'd love my kids to be able to buy a cheap bit of land and build on it regardless but they can't so I resent others being allowed to do the same.

[eaglewings]

This seems to be a case of NIMBY

Turn the tables to another ethnic group and they would be more likely to get support?

Like the quote by the Bishop of Chelmsford in the first link. "if evicting children is the answer we must be asking the wrong question"

I also did not realise the low percentage of applications that were accepted and had wondered about council tax. There is it seems much misunderstanding about 2 different lifestyles

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

I dont get how my neighbours can build a house in their urban, tiny, backgarden with impunity yet 100s of people are to be chucked off an old scrapyard that nobody cared about before they got there.

I do not understand how children can be traumatized in Essex because they are members of the last minority that we are allowed to treat like crap.

Yet people like the builder next door can do what the bloody hell they want to because they know all about the loopholes in the laws.

That tosser with the razor wire in his garden was having his moment of glory the other day. I dont think he has actually ever had any problems with the travellers. He put the wire up because he was protecting himself and his dogs

Presumably to stop them stealing and selling his children as well.

[GloriaVanderbilt]

I have to admit I know nothing about travellers, apart from the ones local to here who have a reputation for thieving anything that's not nailed down and trying to flog heather in the town centre.

That's all I know about them. There has to be another side - I remain open minded, and I am sorry for people losing their home.

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Yes, I love that quote from the bishop too.

On the planning permission issue - "The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 removed the duty of local councils to provide authorised pitches and gave the Council and Police powers to move travellers on, subject to certain welfare issues. The official response of the government was that travellers should buy land and apply for planning permission to occupy it. However, those that did so found it extremely difficult to get planning permission, with more than 90% of applications by travellers refused" - from here.

Here is what Liberty have to say on the matter.

[GandTiceandaslice]

I don't understand why tbh. Have lived close by for 12 years. No trouble from them. It's just dreadful. Utterly dreadful.

[GeneralCustardsHardHat]

Hasn't this been in and out of the courts for over a decade now and they're only evicting the illegally parked up travellers.

I can't imagine this action is being undertaken lightly. Can you imagine the impact its going to have on residents emergency services and council workers?! Rather them than me!