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The Village that Refuses to Die: Dale Farm Builds itself a Centre

Dale Farm News No 6,
May 1 2008


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Richard Sheridan (chair)
Grattan Puxon (secretary)
Dale Farm Housing Association
01206 523528

They are demolishing Sulukule, Turkey's oldest Romani quarter, and deporting the so-called  "army of evil" from Italy.

But amid all the anti-Gypsy drives  in Europe, the flag is still flying over Dale Farm, the UK Travellers' village that refuses to die.

While a police helicopter clattered menacingly overhead,  workmen this week hurried to complete the building of a new community centre in the village. It has its official opening on Saturday (3 May).

The centre has been funded by Essex County Council, which would like to see Basildon council give up its hardline policy against Travellers. However, Tory head Malcolm Buckley has just cut his ties with Essex Racial Equality Council, the sponsors of youth and other activities that will take place in the building.

Lord Avebury, a member of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Traveller Law Reform, will cut the tape at the opening ceremony. The architect of the original Caravan Sites Act, he has long campaigned for a better deal for Britain's 350,000 Gypsies.

"We hope Buckley will see the positive side of what we are doing," said Richard Sheridan, president of the Gypsy Council.

"Our young people will benefit from the programmes put on in the centre."

Named after Saint Christopher, the patron saint of Travellers, Sheridan said the building would be blessed over the weekend by the parish priest and used on as a chapel by the Catholic residents.

 

AWAITING VERDICT

Turned down by two UK secretaries of state, the subject of three public inquiries and still awaiting the verdict of a High Court judge,  Dale Farm has shown  a resilience that has surprised even its friends.

Few believed Dale Farm could survive with a five million euro eviction hanging over it for the past three years.

Indeed some professionals, particularly in the Traveller Education Service, seem to have abandoned us. Many children of secondary education age have been left without schools to attend.

But deadlines have come and gone and this self-help community has now put up its own learning centre. One of the first course to be offered young people will be in computer literacy.

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