1,000 Travellers 'face eviction'

Up to 1,000 Irish Travellers are facing eviction from a caravan park in England today in one of the biggest security operations of its type, Traveller support groups have claimed.

Pavee Point assistant director Martin Collins said the planned eviction of up to 130 families from Cray's Hill in Essex by Basildon District Council was "developing into a very volatile and ugly situation".

Speaking at a protest yesterday outside the British embassy in Dublin, Mr Collins said the local authority had set aside £1.5 million to pay for private security during the eviction, which would take place at land purchased by Traveller families in 1996.

The council is set to evict the families after rejecting their application for a number of caravan pitches at the site.

"All the Travellers at the site are Irish. They are in an impossible situation because the Tory government in 1994 removed the legal obligation on local authorities to provide accommodation for Travellers.

"Travellers were subsequently encouraged to buy their own plots. But 90 per cent of applications for planning permission from Gypsies and Travellers are refused.

"We are calling on the local council to sit down and negotiate a solution," said Mr Collins, who will join hundreds of demonstrators at a protest march in Essex this afternoon.

A spokesman for Basildon District Council said the families had until midnight last night to vacate the site, or they would be in breach of a government order.

"These people can make an application to the council if they are homeless. But there is not an alternative site on to which they can move in any authorised sense," he added.