So where will they go?
Here's how racism works in the case of the Travellers -
First you make it almost impossible for them to get planning permission when they first apply, by allowing local residents to voice their opinions on proposed development by Travellers of property they own as part of the pp process, but then you grant them retrospective pp when the Travellers, anticipating negative responses from the local commuinity, go ahead and set up their homes anyway. The planning authorities make the law look like an ass and stirr up all sorts of negative feelings in the local population, who start suspecting that there are two sets of laws in operation, on top of the already simmering resentment about having to live near Travellers.
Then when the Travellers have successfully won appeals for 8 years, have put down roots, sent their children to the local schools and have started feeling at home, they are told the jig is up. They must move forthwith. However, the Travellers having experienced the tendency of the powers that be to speak out both sides of their mouth, justifiably feel they have a chance of staying, since they have done so for 8 years while appealing, so they stay and appeal. Eventually they are accused of making the law look like an ass (and apparently this is a cardinal civil sin) and of being criminals, while at the same time the judge leaves them a weekend to lodge a further appeal. So on the one hand he has told them they are criminals and on the other he has left them time to appeal, thus inflaming opinion against them while staying (only just) on the right side of the letter of the law.
Meanwhile, during all the years as the Travellers keep on arriving at Dale Farm, Basildon DC thought only of means to get rid of them, apparently paying no attention to the sensible conclusion that their increasing presence there suggested, namely that the Travellers clearly need somewhere to stay (let's please get past the irony that they are called Travellers yet they do not do much travelling). Very obviously, Basildon DC would prefer if the Travellers vanished off the face of the earth; they are prepared to spend £18m to evict this community but not a penny to ensure they can pitch legally in Tony 'not triumphal' Ball's bailiwick. So Basildon DC starts to look like a bit of an ass too. (Unless your priority is the removal of a maligned group of people, in which case you are probably very happy to see £18m spent this way and not in some practical way that would address their needs and signal even an iota of a positive attitude towards their existence).
Thus their need to have somewhere to pitch their trailers and have an address to use in order to register their children for school is mocked and used against them. They cannot just travel around indefinitely. They are obliged to send their children to school. Their need for an address makes them criminals but Basildon DC will not let them have one. Not in Basildon anyway. Basildon DC is perfectly happy to see them move anywhere else to be 'criminals' and 'make the law look like an ass' and cost another LA £18m to remove in due time.
Under the wise leadership of Tony Ball and his ilk, LAs are not interested in formulating a sensible, rational and cost effective policy of providing legal pitches for the Travellers and they can get away with the massive waste of taxpayer money involved in this blinkered approach because there are no votes in leadership on the subject of the Travellers, only in preaching to the smug choir.