Absurd and sad events at Dale Farm have not solved the problem

LONDON LETTER:THE HEADLINE was, perhaps, too good to pass up yesterday: "Dale Farm eviction delayed yet again – by BATS", screamed the Daily Mirror, while the Daily Mail trumpeted, "Parts of Dale Farm will be kept standing after bat claims".

For now, the reality is more prosaic. Last Thursday, the majority of the Travellers left the site, either moving next door into legal plots belonging to others, which provides only a temporary solution, or else staying with family elsewhere.

Since then, the Travellers’ representatives have fought a guerrilla war against Basildon council, with the ambition of making the cost of clearing the site so prohibitive that Basildon’s rate payers would eventually weary of the task.

First, there was the issue of removing the concrete and hard core laid over the years on the lands outside the Essex town. Under the court order, all of it is to be removed, but Travellers argued that this meant the council would have to dig down 10m and remove thousands of lorry loads.

So far, the council has taken away just the top layer of covering from eight plots. In a few cases, Travellers will be legally entitled to move their caravans back, however impractical such a course may be.

Then, there was the great crested newt – a protected amphibian species. “It turns out that one of the children on site became fascinated with newts on a school trip and has been observing the newts for some time,” said Stuart Hardwicke-Carruthers, one of the Travellers’ supporters.

So far, the protected newt has not been found, but Basildon council’s rejection of Hardwicke-Carruthers’s claims that bats live in the roof-space of some of the chalets has become a little more muted since he first made the claim three days ago.

Then, the Conservative leader of Basildon council, Tony Ball, said such claims were “spurious”, but the council has now suspended work on clearing out two plots until an independent survey is carried out to decide if bats are present.

Under UK law (which in this case is the same as Ireland’s), bats cannot be killed, injured or captured; nor can their roosts be “intentionally, or recklessly” destroyed even if the bats are not in occupation at the time. If found, the bats will be able to stay. Travellers will not.

Up to now, 40 people – none of them Travellers – have been arrested for alleged offences on Wednesday last week when riot police were stoned as they broke through fences at the rear of the lands. Just three of the 40 have been charged since.

One will face trial for alleged violent disorder; a 63-year-old man is charged with a public order offence, while a 26-year-old woman from west London has been charged with failing to remove a face covering.

All are out on bail until they appear before magistrates early next month.

During and after the police’s forced entry, the protesters and, to a lesser extent, the Travellers alleged time and again that officers were guilty of torture and human rights abuses, though press eye-witnesses disagreed.

Instead, the police action was controlled and disciplined, bar the inexplicable decision to break down some of the back wall of Patrick Egan’s brick-built home near the entrance to the plot when it would have been easier to enter by road.

The issue for most of the opponents of the eviction is that they did not accept then, nor do they accept now, that the police had any right to be there.

So-called “legal observers” were present by the score, though they were neither independent nor impartial. This is unfortunate, since past evictions have been abusive affairs and they may be again, when a credible outside eye could be invaluable. But credibility is not created by hysteria.

For now, the Travellers’ declarations before eviction that they would be found on the side of the road, without water or electricity, have not materialised. In time they will, however; those staying on Dale Farm’s legal plots have received but a temporary reprieve.

Impartiality is a rare species in Dale Farm, rarer than any great crested newt. Basildon council argues that it has had to bear too large a number of Travellers. Other councils in the east of England make the same argument. And they can back it up with figures.

Equally, Travellers argue that Margaret Thatcher told them in the 1980s to buy their own land. This they did, only to find in some places that they could not get planning permission, and that they would never get it. They, too, have their numbers.

The Dale Farm “problem” has not been solved; it has been moved. Travellers’ organisations fear that there is a drive – one that will intensify when local communities get more power over planning – to push them even more to the margins.

Even if it was inevitable and legal, much of last week was both absurd and sad. Perhaps, it was highlighted best when a crane dragged down the scaffold-arch at the gate, ripping electricity cables. Two scaffolders would have done the job before breakfast, without mishap.