DRESSED IN matching floral tops, the McCarthy sisters arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand in London, singing Smile Though Your Heart Is Breakingas they passed waiting television camera crews.
Inside, Tony Ball, the Conservative leader of Basildon Council, sat visibly frustrated as it became clear that the evictions, already delayed by an emergency injunction awarded on Monday, were going to be held up even more.
The immediate issue is the enforcement orders issued against the site, some dating back to the early 1990s even before the Travellers bought the contested land. They have developed the land without planning permission since they bought it a decade ago.
Much of the concrete and hardcore laid on the land was put there not by the Travellers, but by Basildon Council itself in an arrangement it had with the previous owner, Ray Bocking. Back then, the council stored cars there that they had found dumped elsewhere.
Lawyer Marc Willers, for the Travellers, argued that the enforcement notices issued against Mr Bocking were ended when he sold the land to the Travellers and the council could not now seek to have hardstands removed when it had previously accepted them.
Equally, he argued that many of the mobile homes on the six-acre property cannot be touched because they are either too long, too wide or too high – or all three – under legislation dating back to 1960 that defines a caravan in law.
Four of the pitches cannot be cleared because vehicles are not allowed upon them – a restriction that would, the Travellers’ advisers argue, mean the council would not be able to bring in diggers, trucks and trailers to take anything off them.
Some of the individually owned pitches at Dale Farm have had walls and fences erected around them over the years, to which Basildon Council has never objected, and, therefore, now cannot be removed, said Mr Willers, though Mr Taylor argued that they could be put back.
For ages, the court heard debates about the different status enjoyed by hardstands for caravans, hardcore or “road scalpings”, with the judge pondering the difference between a construction erected directly on a hardstand and one built on its own foundations.
Promising to rule on a number of issues on Monday, Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart indicated that an application for judicial review taken in parallel to yesterday’s proceedings might take longer to adjudicate upon.
However, he warned that evictions from Dale Farm were “in many cases going to happen”, adding: “Anybody who thinks this is a long stay of execution while minor squabbles are carried out – they must think again.”
Resuming for the afternoon session, the judge lightened the mood by congratulating the McCarthys, all Dale Farm residents, on the colour they had brought to the court – particularly welcome, he said, since judges now so rarely had the opportunity to wear their own ermines.
Heckled by Travellers’ supporters later outside the Royal Courts of Justice, the Basildon Council leader hid his disappointment: “We accept that the judge feels he needs more time to consider the details of this case in order that justice is clearly seen to be done.
“We are very satisfied with the way our legal team is continuing to set out our case. After 10 years, if we have to wait a few more days to reach a proper resolution to this case, then so be it. We look forward to the judge’s decision on Monday,” he said.
