Fwd: Urgent Action Appeal -- Eviction of Hovefields and Dale Farm

Fri Aug 20 18:15:08 BST 2010

Urgent Action Appeal

UNITED KINGDOM: Forced Eviction of Gypsies and Travellers
of Hovefields and Dale Farm

Dear friends,

More than 20 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans at

Hovefields Drive, nearby the largest Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller

community in the United Kingdom, Dale Farm, Essex, are facing imminent

forced eviction. The families received a 28-day notice issued by Basildon

District Council to vacate their pitches and leave by 31 August or otherwise

face eviction by the bailiff Company Constant and Co. Six families were

evicted from Hovefields Drive community on 29 June, when the bailiff

company, acting as agents of the Basildon Council, arrived at the site in

the early hours of the day accompanied by Essex police officers and gave

occupants one hour to pack up and leave. No alternative accommodation was

offered, no compensation for the destruction of utilities was paid, and

these families are now homeless.

Please sign and send the urgent appeal attached to this message to the UK

GOVERNMENT and BASILDON DISTRICT COUNCIL.

Many thanks,

Leticia Osorio

Essex Human Rights Clinic

* *

* *

*Urgent Action Appeal*

*UNITED KINGDOM**: Forced Eviction of Gypsies and Travellers
of Hovefields and Dale Farm *

18 August 2010

Dear friends,

More than 20 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans at
Hovefields Drive, nearby the largest Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller
community in the United Kingdom, Dale Farm, Essex County, are facing
imminent forced eviction. The families received a 28-day notice issued by
Basildon District Council to vacate their pitches and leave by 31 August or
otherwise face eviction by the bailiff Company Constant and Co. Six families
were evicted from Hovefields Drive community on 29 June, when the bailiff
company, acting as agents of the Basildon Council, arrived at the site in
the early hours of the day accompanied by Essex police officers and gave
occupants one hour to pack up and leave. Heavy digger machines dig up the
six plots where there was no-one living at the time as the families were
travelling. No previous notice of this work had been given and a utility
unit used as a lavatory was demolished. Children were able to move freely
about the sites shortly before the utility was demolished by a heavy digger.
Health and safety regulations were totally ignored during the eviction
operation and the police did nothing to guarantee compliance with human
rights law although a meeting between senior police officers, the Dale Farm
Housing Association and the Essex Human Rights Clinic had taken days before
the eviction. Those families who were travelling cannot return to their
plots because Basildon District Council obtained a court injunction that
prevent them to do so. No alternative accommodation was offered, no
compensation for the destruction of utilities was paid, and these families
are now homeless.

In the case of Dale Farm, approximately 1,000 people have been residing on
the estate for more than

 seven years, including many children. The community has been resisting
forced evictions attempts

 by Basildon District Council since May 2005 when it voted to clear a large
part of the settlement.

Although all residents hold land ownership titles, sections of the site had
no planning permission and

Basildon Council has subsequently refused all attempts to regularise the
situation, preferring the

enforcement option.

In March 2010 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) issued a letter urging the UK Government and its institutions to
consider suspending any planned eviction until an adequate solution is
achieved, with the meaningful participation of the community to guarantee
protection of their housing rights, including the provision of adequate
alternative accommodation (
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/UK_12.03.2010.pdf).

Basildon Council has offered nothing but brick and mortar houses or
apartments, which are unsuitable for Gypsies and Travellers. Furthermore,
the Council has refused to engage in conversations with the community.

The new UK Coalition Government has cancelled the central funding of
much-needed new caravan parks for nomadic Gypsies and Travellers and removed
the requirement to designate land for their accommodation. Many thousands of
Gypsy families are thus forced to live illegally on land they have purchased
but where they have been denied through strict planning laws to set up
permanent homes. Thus another generation of Gypsies and Travellers are in
danger of losing the chance of a regular education, while the old and the
sick are deprived of the care and medical attention.

The wishes of the residents are to remain where it is and not to be split
up. There is a strong communal ethic, with the elderly being cared for by
the younger generation and small children protected. Gypsies and Travellers
feel that having lost the possibility to follow the old nomadic life-style,
it is essential to the preservation of their culture and ethnicity to keep
Dale Farm and Hovefields communities intact. In line with the Housing Act
1996, it is incumbent on the BDC to consider the claim of the occupants to
not be evicted as the families threatened with forced removal have no place
to go.

The community is therefore seeking your support to urge the Basildon
Council to:

Put on hold the imminent forced eviction of Hovefields community and
the planned eviction of

Dale Farm, and engage in meaningful consultation discussions with the
residents and their

representatives for the purpose of seeking to achieve an amicable solution;

Consider both the possibility of a) issuing planning permission to
allow their permanent residence on

their present properties; or b) utilising the € 4 million set aside
for the eviction to provide an

alternative area to which the residents can relocate;

Respect and protect the housing, property and family rights of the
Gypsy and Traveller communities,

in particular the rights of the children.

*Suggested Action*

Please send an appeal letter by e-mail or fax to the addresses listed below
requesting the Basildon Council to stop the eviction. Sample letters and
further background information are provided below.

 *To: *

* *

*Basildon District Council*

Mr. Bala Mahendran, Chief Executive

Basildon Centre

St. Martins Sq, Basildon, SS14 1DL, UK

Tel:+44 1268 533333

bala.mahendran at basildon.gov.uk

* *

*CC:*

*Department for Communities and Local Government*

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles

Zone 7/J9

Eland House

Bressenden Place

London SW1E 5DU

gypsies at communities.gsi.gov.uk

Contactus at communities.gsi.gov.uk

*Commission for Equalities and Human Rights*

Mr. Sean Risdale

Policy Advisor,**

3 More London, Riverside Tooley Street

London, SE1 2RG

Tel: +44.20 3117 0235

Sean.Risdale at equalityhumanrights.com

*BCC:*

Essex Human Rights Clinic

Email: losori at essex.ac.uk

Dale Farm Housing Association

dale.farm at btinternet.com

* *

*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*

 *Sample Letter*

Dear Mr. Bala Mahendran, Chief Executive of Basildon District Council,

* *

*Re: Negotiation instead of Evictions*

I have heard of the problems affecting the Hovefields and Dale Farm
communities who are facing imminent forced eviction from their pitches and
homes and who fear they will become homeless. I/We ask the Basildon Council
to halt all eviction plans in the area and take immediate steps to
facilitate a fair and peaceful negotiation with the residents as to achieve
a solution that complies with human rights standards and meets their needs. The
United Kingdom is a State party to the International Covenant on Economic
Social Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and under Article 11(1) all authorities in
the UK are therefore obliged to refrain from the practice of forced
evictions, and to prevent homelessness. Evictions can only be justified
under very exceptional circumstances and these include, among others, the
provision of alternative affordable and culturally adequate accommodation, and
adequate compensation for the loss of homes and land. A great deal of public
money and effort could be avoided in the of this duty by simply granting
planning permission for the unauthorised pitches already in existence at
Dale Farm and Hovefields.

I/We therefore urge you to intervene in this matter and to ensure that no
evictions take place, and instead peaceful negotiations are established with
the residents of Hovefields and Dale Farm until an acceptable agreement for
relocation and/or compensation is reached.

Yours sincerely,

[Name]

[Address]

[and/or Organisation]

[Country]

[Email]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Background Information*

Dale Farm, in Crays Hill, Essex, is the UK’s largest Travellers' community,
consisting of nearly a hundred separate properties, lying well outside the
village and made up of extended family plots or yards. Hovefields Drive,
located nearby, has ties with the extended families of Dale Farm community.
Most pitches are owned by Travellers of Irish heritage, although some Romani
families also own yards. The estate is divided in two sections, the front
part (about 45 plots) has planning permission; while the back part (52
plots) despite numerous applications and appeals, has been refused planning
consent. The Council’s main argument has hinged on the statement that the
placing of caravans and mobile homes on the site is “inappropriate
development”, which is harmful to the Green Belt and should not be approved
except in very special circumstances. Although BDC has taken into account
some of the residents’ personal circumstances – such as individual health
issues and attendance of school (but has been unaware of others), we noticed
it has failed to give full attention to the residents’ special needs and
rights as a minority ethnic group, such as the importance to live in a
community and in the company of their extended families. Basildon District
Council has argued that it is not possible to rezone the area as the impact
upon the Green Belt by reason of the inappropriateness of the development
continues to weigh against permitting Dale Farm to remain.

However, the planning history of the area has shown that the site had been
used without planning permission since early 1990’s for a variety of
industrial uses. In 1992 BDC issued Enforcement Notices against various
unauthorised commercial activities that were being pursued on the site. Part
of the land at the east side of the site was previously the subject of two
temporary consents for the breaking of motor vehicles, sale of vehicle parts
and dealing in scrap metals. This use ceased following the vacation of the
land by the business proprietors in 2001.

When the unauthorised development of the application site first came to the
Council’s attention in September 2003, the land to the east of the site had
been used as a scrap yard from 1978 until 2001 under a permission granted by
the Council to be used as such. If an exception was allowed for the scrap
metal yard, surely an exception can be made for a vulnerable minority group
to continue to live there, particularly given that many of them have already
been through traumatic experiences of forced eviction.

In May 2005, the BDC voted to take direct action, setting aside some three
million euro for an eviction and demolition operation. Residents sought a
Judicial Review of this decision and won in the High Court. This judgment
was overturned by the Court of Appeal on 22 January 2009. An appeal to the
House of Lords was denied on 14 May 2009. After extensive research into the
needs of Travellers and Gypsies in the UK, on 20 July 2009 the Department
for Communities and Local Government informed BDC and the Gipsy Council that
the District Council is required to provide sufficient land for 62 (sixty
two) additional pitches. However, the new UK Government coalition has
recently withdrawn this obligation.

*For additional information or queries, please contact:*

Leticia Osorio

Essex Human Rights Clinic

Email: losori at essex.ac.uk

Grattan Puxon

Dale Farm Housing Association

Email: dale.farm at btinternet.com
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"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no
man speaketh as we speak in the street.”
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