To think that rights/wrongs aside, a council needing to make £300m cuts should focus it's funds somewhere other than evicting gypsies?

[Blubell]

I know there are massive fors and againsts in the Dale Farm evictions, and I don't want to start a big travellers debate, but in this time of austerity measures, and the fact that Essex council needs to cut £300m in 3 years, is evicting the site now, when it's a case that has been going on for 10 years really the best way to spend the little cash they have? Its been reported it's going to cost the council £18m to return the site - which used to be a scrapyard so hardly a place of outstanding beauty - back to greenbelt, how many carers, libraries etc will be lost to fund that? Just a thought.......

Well yes up to the point that they fil to do so (or can't) in which case society usually steps in.

If we lose this palce and the boys can't cope with emergency housing then they go into foster care; not sure why traveller kid's needs are more easily written off tbh. If we can;t provide a roof then somebody will.

'New documentary evidence collected by local residents suggests that one couple living on Dale Farm are on the deeds of a home in Rathkeale.
Another couple, who recently married in London, own a plot of land in Rathkeale and have planning approval to build a marital home and another property.
Others appear on the electoral register in the Irish town.'

From the Torygraph wrt the alleged mass ownership of homes in Ireland on the part of Dale Farm residents.

So.

From what I remember of teh travellers back home, quite a few were employed outside the community. Not all by a long way, but a fair number.

could it be that someone owning a hous ein Ireland would rather remian in work here? Quite feasible given the situation there. As far as I know the place dcould have been up fro sale since the economy there bottomed out.

I don't know: they may also be freelaoders but it takes a hell of a lot more info for me to make a judgement about a circumstance.

The local school these children attend was a good school with normal attendance rates until the travellers arrived and populated it.
These people have been persistanrlt breaking the law for 10 years, get in, get them out and get on with it.
As for the likening to Nazi Germany - puhleeeeese!

"A builder living on Europe's largest illegal traveller site is secretly backing a lavish 33 home property development in Ireland, it emerged yesterday.
Michael Quilligan, the son of a traveller worth £24million, is among the 96 families who claim they will be made homeless when they are removed from Dale Farm in Essex.
However, planning records show that Mr Quilligan is the mastermind behind a multi-million-pound development in the town of Rathkeale."

"A dozen of the families facing eviction have bought homes in Rathkeale"

"Their links with Rathkeale ? where around half of the town?s properties are owned by travellers."

Rather more than one couple then...

The school is still rated good, though with appalling attendance rates.

Mr Quilligan, a father of four, runs a business called Michael Quilligan Building Contractor and is the son of Rathkeale?s wealthiest traveller, Simon ?Sammy Buckshot? Quilligan, an antiques dealer.

Another traveller, Richard O?Brien ? an uncle of Dale Farm spokesman Richard Sheridan but not from the site himself ? is developing 44 houses near his home in Rathkeale, called the Castle Park estate.
A third housing estate of 18 properties, again linked to members of the Sheridan clan, is also thought to have been built.

"Basildon Borough Council had paid housing benefits for some of the Dale Farm travellers directly to a landlord based in Rathkeale.

Those paragraphs should all be in quote marks, forgot them, sorry.

maryz As I said in my original post, I am NOT questioning the rights and wrongs of travellers, I am questioning whether in a time when councils are cutting everything from libraries to carers whether it is justified to spend £18m evicting them. And to answer your question I do not have a problem living next door to travellers. There is a travellers site in my hamlet. So I am able to comment. Not that I actually did

i think it is a waste of money as the travellers will move on to another site, costing the council more money to evit again and again and again

It's not about the money, it's about not allowing a far reaching precedent in planning law to be set. It should never have been allowed to go this far.

maryz As I said in my original post, I am NOT questioning the rights and wrongs of travellers, I am questioning whether in a time when councils are cutting everything from libraries to carers whether it is justified to spend £18m evicting them. And to answer your question I do not have a problem living next door to travellers. There is a travellers site in my hamlet. So I am able to comment. Not that I actually did

So, out of 96 families there are allegedly 12 who own houses in Rathkeale -- no mention of whether there are tenants currently occupying the houses. And even the alleged mastermind (lol) can't just move into one of the properties he has developed.

That leaves 82 families.

I have relatives who are in the building trade in Ireland too, well relatives of relatives really can I have one of the houses or maybe a nice apartment they haven't managed to sell in the current climate? They would love to be called 'masterminds' btw very funny thought.

The Sheridans sound as if they would fit right into the local branch of the Conservative Party. The Tories are missing a chance here if they haven't been invited to sign up.

Those 12 families are clearly not homeless as they own properties in Ireland. If they choose to rent them out, then it's their responsibility to find somewhere else to live - somewhere legal.

And those are just the 12 where their property has been tracked down so far. There may well be others.

Just correcting your post of one couple. That's the problem with googling and c&ping, you can find anything to support any view one holds.

A couple of basic questions, which you've been asked and have either ignored or 'answered with c&ping waffle. Feel free to ignore again, but it would be interesting to have simple yes/no answers.

Do you understand that Dale Farm breaks the law?

Do you understand that we ALL have to abide by the law?

Do you understand that the residents of Dale Farm have had 2 years in which to arrange to move out peacefully?

Do you understand that to allow them to stay would set far reaching, and detrimental to ALL, planning law precedents?

Just yes or no will do.

To add to Sarah's list:

Do you understand that part of the site is lawful and that those people are being allowed to stay? Which rather gives the lie to the idea this is about discrimination...

Same thing happened near here. Illegal camp appeared overnight. Large number of traveller children enrolled at local village school. Within weeks virtually all non-traveller children had left due to the high levels of verbal and physical aggression. Then they successfully appealed against eviction on the grounds that their children were settled in the school and it would damage their education.
You couldn't make it up

Perhaps the council should send the bill to the owners of all these properties in Ireland to recoup costs.

Lets be brutally honest here. the term 'traveller' applies to many different cultures - very ethnically different. Eg Roma gypsies and Irish travellers ARE NOT one and the same. They get a group classification by virtue of being historically 'nomadic'.

Being Irish and grandad previously owning a caravan isnt an ethnicity, it's a modern day lifestyle choice to latching onto the past.

I will go to the sublime here ~ Maori New Zealanders practiced canibalism. I don't expect to find an enclave of them demanding their rights to illegally live together in unlawful dwellings because their grandad might have popped off in a boat at one stage to Hawaii and eaten Captain Cook. A fatutious remark, but you get my drift.

Correcting me by what, C&Ping?

And instead of 95 families with nowhere to go there are now 82.

I'd prefer to see C&Ping myself, in preference to making stuff up. 'And that they are not homeless, and own houses in Ireland, and one family is building an estate of homes there?' -- you imply that they are all choosing to live in Dale Farm in preference to the houses in Ireland that they own.

Or in preference to darkly hinting -- 'And those are just the 12 where their property has been tracked down so far. There may well be others.'

Why is it ok to speculate about Travellers like this? Why not accuse them of boiling their babies while you're at it? After all, there is a high infant mortality rate in the Traveller community.

Sarah, Do you ever stop to consider that 'the law' may not be what you fondly imagine it is?

Edam -- read the thread and the many others on the topic and figure out for yourself what are the chances of those 82 families finding somewhere to stay. Read this too.

Will those extolling the virtue of 'The Law' then give their full support to the injunction which has been granted?

"Illegal camp appeared overnight. Large number of traveller children enrolled at local village school."

I don't get this. Don't you need proof of residence to be able to enroll your child in the local school? Can anyone just walk through the gates of a school and be a student there?