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Forty Minute Warning of Community Assault
FORTY MINUTE WARNING OF COMMUNITY ASSAULT
Ustiben Report
17 October 2008
by Grattan Puxon
Care workers have told Dale Farm residents they will get only a forty minute warning before bailiffs and bulldozers move in to crush the largest UK Gypsy settlement.
The ninety families at Crays Hill will literally be left in the dark as Essex police block off roads in the early morning just prior to the massive direct action operation by Basildon council.
An Essex County Council official speaking at a residents' meeting in the Saint Christopher Centre described Basildon’s eviction plans as sacrosanct. But details are gradually emerging as doubts are cast on the wisdom of the five million euro eviction, already condemned by many as an act of ethnic-cleansing.
Officials met with residents last week to allay fears that the council might take children into care during the eviction, should the Appeal Court, after hearing the case in December,
allow the destruction of Dale Farm to go ahead.
"We don't want to take your children and we have no intention to do so," Lou Williams emphasised. "As far as we can we'll work with you and help the young, the elderly and the sick."
However, Noreen Fry, an ECC official with responsibility for old people, revealed that in talks with Basildon it had been stated her workers would be informed not more than 40 to 45 minutes before the eviction commenced.
"We're to assemble on the Belvedere car park," she said, referring to a public house in Crays Hill, Billericay. "Basildon staff and police will also be there."
She said the county council regarded this as a major-scale emergency.
Kathleen McCarthy, vice-chair of the residents' committee, warned that any attempt by the council or police to take away the children would be resisted by the youngsters and their parents.
McCarthy said they well understood the council could not put children into care without going to court. But the Chief Constable had the power to issue a Protection Order under which police could hold children for up to 72 hours. For this reason, her next step would be
to seek a meeting with police chief Roger Baker.
"We've built this community ourselves and we don't want it broken up," she stated. "We don't want to go into houses and we don't want our culture changed."
Williams said he would welcome any plans the community might have for moving children and elderly to a place of safety. He was told church halls could be used while caravans moved onto adjacent land, belonging to relations of the families being made homeless.
Lin Jacobs explained that the ECC could offer interim accommodation to the most needy. Provided there was running water, staff would be able to continue care services at what was described as a temporary tent city. The Red Cross had also promised help and had donated a large tent, she was informed.
The need to update a risk assessment drawn up by Basildon with Constant & Co. bailiffs in 2005 was highlighted by Grattan Puxon, secretary of Dale Farm Housing Association.
"Family welfare needs and all the hazards involved have not been reviewed since," said Puxon. "We have to be party to the final risk assessment report as it’s our people, including small children, who are in danger."
Once the bailiffs start they demolish and burn everything, said Kate O'Brien, a Dale Farm mother. "They'll push you down and insult you with bad language, even if you're sick or pregnant. They'll force us out on the road and leave us to live in a ditch."
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