This is The Welcome Pack for Dale Farm. read in advance so you will konw the rules

Romany Gypsies

This is The Welcome Pack for Dale Farm. read in advance so you will konw the rules

Beat'n Streets

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26043573/Dale%20Farm%20Solidarity%20Welcome.pdf

dl.dropbox.com

Calling out to all activists and legal observers – information about the Dale Farm eviction this week | Dale Farm Travellers

Calling out to all activists and legal observers – information about the Dale Farm eviction this week

Posted on September 17, 2011 by dalefarmsupport

Calling out to all activists and legal observers – information about the Dale Farm eviction this week – Please forward this around your networks ASAP thanks!

Today, we are witnessing a new civil rights movement for Travellers. What’s happening to us at Dale Farm will never happen again. Monday 19th, they will try to bulldoze Dale Farm and we strongly recommend getting here ahead of the eviction as it is likely to start at 8 am.  We will also need people to come up throughout the week of the eviction.

If you can’t make it you can support in another way, we are in desperate need of funds. Please donate!

Dale farm residents are calling on supporters to come to Dale Farm to help them stop the eviction or act as human rights monitors. 

Activists are supporting the Travellers in defending their homes and community.  There’s many different ways of getting involved – we need medics, legal observers, site defenders, cooks, etc.. More people are needed on all fronts.

Please sign up for txt alerts in case urgent information needs to get relayed or follow us on twitter.  You can send information to the legal hotline 07928669515

Getting to the site

Dale Farm is about 30-40 minutes from London by Train, you can find directions here. From Wickford Station (30 minutes journey from London), it’s a 15 minute cycle/45 minute walk from the station. To arrange a lift call the site phone: 07583621312

Please see map for more info on access to the site.  As of Saturday Sept. 17th, there are no restrictions on entering Dale Farm.

Be Prepared

Things to bring:
-warm clothes
-food
-water bottle
-sleeping bag and roll mat
-notepads, pencils
-torches
-cameras for taking photo evidence
-clean phone

Things not to bring:
-offensive weapons
-Things you would not like the police to take off you

Food

A vegan kitchen is running. We will be asking for donations to cover our costs, but it may be an early target of the Bailiffs, so please bring extra food.

Sleeping arrangements 

Sleeping space is available in caravans and residents’ homes but we encourage you to bring a tent, and you are welcome to sleep over anytime. Please bring a sleeping bag if you can, and a roll mat is highly recommended especially since most of the tent space is on hard ground.

>Legal info
Write on your arm before you get here:
Dale Farm Legal Hotline: 07928 669 515
Birds Solicitors: 07966 234 994
Hodge Jones and Allen Solicitors: 07659 111 192

Other info

Camp Constant site phone: 07583621312

The welcome pack is available here (in three formats, all versions have the same content):Dale Farm Welcome pdf or Dale Farm Welcome odt or Dale Farm Welcome word doc – if you have trouble opening any of these for any reason, please email savedalefarm@gmail.com The welcome packs contain information on Dale Farm and the political context of the current eviction, Camp Constant and what to bring, Traveller history, and legal advice for activists.

http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity/

People coming organised as affinity groups are very welcome.

Please promote our facebook event through social networking sites, and see the original callout here

See you here!

Camp Constant

via dalefarm.wordpress.com

Dale Farm: Travellers Fear Eviction Will Prevent Children From Finding Local School | UK News | Sky News

Dale Farm: Fears Over Kids' Education

5:53am UK, Saturday September 17, 2011

Jason Farrell, news correspondent

The eviction at Dale Farm could force dozens of children out of education, their parents believe.

The travellers lost their legal fight last month

Families living on the illegal pitch near Basildon fear they will not be able to find accommodation near to the local school.

They also say they will not be able to pitch anywhere else long enough for their children to be accepted at other schools.

There are 110 children on the register at the local Crays Hill Primary school.

Of those, 107 are traveller children and it is believed that more than 20% of them presently live on the unauthorised pitches and will be directly affected by the site clearance.

The travellers were supported by a UN-funded group

The school admits there is already an issue with low attendance levels, however a spokesperson for Cray's Hill told Sky News: "Engagement with the traveller community has been growing year on year and the parents endeavour to get their children into school, letting the school know when this isn't possible due to travelling.

"The school will always keep places open for pupils when they are travelling rather than taking them off the roll.

"Parents who are affected by the site clearance have said that they would like to continue sending their children to Crays Hill Primary. However, their decision to ensure their child continues to attend the school will depend on where they relocate."

Basildon Council Leader Tony Ball says: "Parents have been offered bricks and mortar accommodation near the school. 

Actress Vanessa Redgrave visited the camp to show her support

"They have family living on the legal pitches at Dale Farm and have been told of other legal sites around the country. It is the parents' responsibility to look after their children."

Many of the mothers on the illegal site are illiterate and say they fear their children will grow up the same way if they are forced back on the road.

Sky News spoke to seven-year-old Nikita Gemmell. She lives on the Dale Farm and says: "I'm going to miss school and my yard and my friends." 

She says she can remember being evicted from Borehamwood in Hertfordshire as a toddler. 

"They came at night and switched off the gas, then they came back in the morning and started smashing up our homes."

Her parents say they do not want her to live through the same experience again and they intend to leave this weekend ahead of Monday's eviction. 

They say they do not know where they will go.

via news.sky.com

Dale Farm ex-owner defends land sale | This is Essex

Dale Farm ex-owner defends land sale

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Essex Chronicle

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THE original owner of Dale Farm has defended his decision to sell his land to travellers ten years ago.

Ray Bocking, who lives next door to the traveller site in Crays Hill, near Billericay, said he had no regrets about selling the six-acre site.

1. ​

   EVICTION DATE: Dale Farm

As the eviction date for the 400 travellers living illegally on the site has been set for September 19, Mr Bocking believes there is no better place than Dale Farm for travellers.

Mr Bocking, said: "It's an ideal site. You can't see it from the road and it's covered with trees.

"The gypsies moved next door and I had to drive through them to get to Dale Farm.

"They came to me and said they wanted it. No-one else wanted it. The council certainly didn't want it."

Basildon Borough Council is to evict those on illegal pitches after a ten-year legal battle.

When asked if he felt responsible for how Dale Farm had grown, Mr Bocking said: "No. I sold it to four gypsies and what they did with it was entirely up to them.

"I really don't think you could get a better site. The neighbours might be upset, but they could close off the road to solve that.

"I didn't tell the council I was planning on selling the land to gypsies but I didn't think it was anything to do with them.

"It's not my fault, people want somewhere to live and the council are throwing people off an ideal site."

via thisistotalessex.co.uk

Dale Farm Travellers | For friends and supporters of Dale Farm

Dale Farm concreted-over by Basildon Council

Posted on September 16, 2011 by dalefarmsupport

NEW VIDEO: DALE FARM’S PREVIOUS OWNER REVEALS COUNCILS DUPLICITY

Evidence has emerged that Basildon Council desecrated the green belt at Dale Farm, laying down hardcore and concrete years before the site was bought by Travellers.

The evidence came to light today after the former owner of Dale Farm, scrapyard dealer Ray Bocking spoke to local journalists. He said,

“I was the owner of Dale Farm…[and] the council put down the hardcore. For years they hard cored it all….they parked all their cars on it…they put down tonnes of hard core…and now they want to dig up their own hard core! ..It’s ridiculous how they are spending other people’s money, £18 million pounds.” (1)

Mr Bocking gave the impression that the Council has engaged in a massive cover-up operation – putting into question not just their justification, but the entire legality of an eviction ostensibly aimed at restoring green belt. Mr Bocking said “Dale Farm was used to store cars before the Travellers bought it and I’d say the Travellers should be allowed to stay here.”

While part of the site was already a licensed scrap yard in the 1960s, the Council used the rest of Dale Farm to store towed away vehicles, and dump hard core, concreting over the greenbelt to make storing the cars easier. It appears the Council paid contractors to dump large quantities of hardcore over the course of some 30-40 years, and to lay concrete across the site to enable long-term storage of large numbers of council-towed lorries and cars.

The legality of the planned eviction rests heavily on the ‘green belt’ status of the land (2) and as consequence is liable to reassessment given the prior and substantial misuse of the land by the Council.

As a result the council activities at Dale Farm any restoration to its previous state will be to a brown field site, laying waste to the Councils assertion that they are ‘restoring the green belt’. It appears the Council paid contractors to dump large quantities of hardcore over the course of some 30-40 years, and to lay concrete across the site to enable long-term storage of large numbers of council-towed lorries and cars.

Supporters of Dale Farm and residents are actively investigating whether Basildon Council may be liable to a multi-million pound law suit, as a result of misuse of green belt land, misrepresentations of the status and quality of the land in communications to the general public and in court, and their sanctioning of the use of £18 million of public funds to ‘restore green belt’ which they themselves desecrated. To limit this possibility the hardstanding must be kept in place at Dale Farm if any eviction takes place.

The Travellers, who are bracing themselves for a brutal forced eviction are investigating suing the Basildon Council, as a result of the Councils misrepresentation of the land’s prior use and effective status.

Councillor Geoff Williams said this morning “This news comes as a complete surprise to me, and undermines the case that the council has been making for years. If these things are true then it would seem that the councils claim for rejuvenating the land is an untenable one. If the ground was laid to local authority standards following the uses spelled out by Mr Bocking, it would be beyond any sensible attempt to reclaim this land for pasture or agricultural use.”

Aerial photographs used is previous Dale Farm planning cases clearly show the land as a scrapyard and location for storing hundreds of cars and trucks (3).

Notes
(1)     See This is Essex here.

(2)     See Appeal Hearing 2009 here.

(3)     Scrap yard photo: here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

via dalefarm.wordpress.com