Dale Farm's history as former council junkyard: Basildon council in denial

Sun Sep 18 23:33:40 BST 2011

thanks for that mark, here's the article - below

and this oldie-but-goodie from the G in 2000

Tinker, tailor, soldier, journalist
Has Fleet Street been over-run by the intelligence agencies? David Leigh unravels the hidden network of spooks at the heart of the British press.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2000/jun/12/pressandpublishing.mondaymediasection

Dale Farm was concreted over by Basildon council, former owner claims

Residents say Dale Farm should be reclassified as brownfield site  but council insists land can be returned to green fields
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/16/dale-farm-concreted-basildon-council-owner

Patrick Barkham - guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 September 2011 19.02 BST 

Dale Farm was concreted over by Basildon council, its former owner claims. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The green belt land of Dale Farm, from which the eviction of 400 Travellers will begin on Monday, was originally concreted over by Basildon council, its former owner has claimed.

Ray Bocking, a retired scrap metal dealer who bought the 2.6-hectare (6.5-acre) smallholding in the early 1970s before selling it to Travellers 10 years ago, said Basildon council's engineering department put down the rough tracks leading to the farm and dumped hardcore and other waste material on the site.

Bocking, who lives in nearby Wickford, told the Guardian it was "ridiculous" that the council was now spending £18m evicting Travellers and removing their chalets and tarmac when "they hardcored it".

"If they had two bob in their pocket they'd have more money than sense," Bocking said of the council. "Dale Farm was a swamp and a breaker's yard for years. It was rubbish ground. I really don't know why they are throwing away £18m."

Bocking said the council helped him put down hardcore because he had a contract with the council to collect abandoned cars and he was asked to store them on the site. Photographs from the 1990s show scores of cars covering more than half of Dale Farm next to the scrapyard.

Brian White, an independent contractor who worked for Bocking, said Basildon council regularly brought waste tarmac and rubble from roadworks and dumped it on Dale Farm for a period of 10 years until the 1990s. "I levelled all the hardcore that the council brought around," he said.

According to White, council bosses knew about the practice and two council lorry drivers regularly brought it to Dale Farm so that the abandoned cars could be parked more easily all over the site.

A council spokesperson categorically denied Bocking's allegations. According to a council source, it served enforcement notices against Bocking in 1992 and 1994 and council contractors did not put down any hardstanding on the farm.

Basildon council has repeatedly said that planning applications for the caravans and chalets on the Essex site were rejected because the land was green belt. Residents say it should be reclassified as brownfield land because it has been a scrapyard for more than 40 years. John Dornan, a Tory councillor for Basildon, has spoken of his memories of visiting the scrapyard in the 60s.

Bocking said the Travellers should be allowed to stay and described Dale Farm as an ideal site because it was secluded and surrounded by trees.

"I could find much better things to do with £18m than causing all this grief. You're going to move them out on to land where everybody will see it," he said.

A council spokesperson said the eviction would proceed as planned on Monday but revealed that the council was unable to legally remove the hardcore from the site of the old scrapyard, which occupies only half an acre. "All of the other hardstanding and services we will be digging up and removing to return back to green fields," the spokesperson said.

While Dale Farm has never been granted planning permission, except one temporary order by the then secretary of state, John Prescott, there have been a number of developments on green areas in the Basildon area recently.

A historic barn was demolished this year so that up to 70 houses could be built on green belt land once owned by Billericay school. Basildon council recently passed plans to build more than 500 new homes on the site of an old pool in Gloucester Park, a recreation ground in the town.

Geoff Williams, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said that, if true, Bocking's comments "undermine the case that the council has been making for years. If this is true, it would seem that the council's claim for rejuvenating the land is an untenable one."

A final application to challenge a ruling denying the Travellers a temporary injunction against the eviction was refused by the high court as more residents left Dale Farm. Activists said many Travellers were committed to resisting the eviction.

--- In Diggers350 at yahoogroups.com, "marksimonbrown" <mark at ...> wrote:
>
> Basildon Council Concreted Over Dale Farm
> Ref: http://jasonnparkinson.wordpress.com/
> 
> On the above url, watch Jason Parkinson's short video interview with Ray Bocking, former owner of Dale Farm, explaining how Basildon Council concreted Dale Farm and used it as a car scrap yard and road works waste site, dumping unused tarmac and hardcore for more than a decade.  
> 
> It makes a nonsense of the claim by Basildon council that the site is in contravention of green belt policy when the same council had for years used the same site as a brownfield dumping ground preceding it's transformation into residential use by the travelling community (the claim that the immediate locality is greenfield is tenuous in any case, since Dale Farm is less than 300 yards away from a dual carriage way and out-of-town retail park. 
> 
> Half of the Dale Farm community has planning permission. The eviction will cost Basildon council a third of its budget - £8 million - to evict 80 families.  
> 
> Jason Parkinson:
> Despite this evidence being crucial to the Dale Farm eviction on the grounds of the land being Green Belt and various media outlets interviewing Mr. Bocking, not one television news outlet has reported the story so far. At the end of this film you see the ITV East news team cut Bocking short for their live feed and flounder when asked if they will report it.
> 
> Last night the Guardian newspaper online was the only outlet to release an article on Ray Bocking's story.
> 
> Aerial view of the scrapyard before it became Dale Farm traveller's site: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26043573/scrap%20yard.jpg
> 
> © Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
> 
> See also: 
> Basildon Council votes to sell off playing fields for homes
> 14/01/2011
> Ref: http://www.southendstandard.co.uk/news/echo/8789524.Council_votes_to_sell_off_playing_fields_for_homes/
> Basildon councillors gave plans for 73 homes on Kent View Road recreation ground in Vange the green light during a heated meeting, despite passionate opposition from residents.
>