It cost millions and they have just created a bomb site. We haven't gone anywhere. The site that used to house them is now an unlovely wasteland punctuated by carved-up hardstanding and the detritus of the eviction: a sofa with its innards torn out, a smashed ping pong table, an array of broken light-fittings. A small amount of asbestos has been found and dealt with, according to the council, and the Environment Agency is due to report at the end of the month on whether the eviction uncovered pollutants.
Tony Ball, the leader of Basildon council, acknowledges that it is far from the greenfield site that was promised by the council and specified by the court order to remove the caravans.
The Dale Farm site belongs to the Travellers who lived there, but as it was greenbelt land they had no right to live there. Now they may lose the land altogether: Ball insists that once the exact costs have been determined, the council will be pushing to recover the money from the evicted Travellers. If they are unable to pay, the land will be seized.
He also insisted the council would continue to push to make sure former residents at the side of the road ended their "illegal" encampment and said the council believed many of the unauthorised caravans belonged to new residents who had not lived at Dale Farm. Eviction orders on all roadside caravans have been served — and ignored.
The council is now considering its next move. Fly-tippers have dumped tonnes of building material, a washing machine and mattresses at the entrance to the site. Locals say they have been forced to build a concrete fence to stop people dumping rubbish in the dead of night. The travellers were evicted from the site eight years ago after a year dispute with Basildon Council.
Police in riot gear hauled the camp occupants from the plot, which did not have planning permission. The former camp once housed more than 1, people over 60 plots before being overrun with thick foliage and shards of broken glass. Grassy bunds snake through the decaying hard-standing and a leaking water main gushes water into the empty plot.
It emerged last year that the council had written off the debt and taxpayers were forced to shoulder the cost. The Sunday Express reports how evicted families —many with an Irish traveller heritage — who still own plots on the land could be in line for a huge windfall. It says about 40 people still own the site and they could be set for a windfall.
Because they did not have planning permission, an epic ten year battle ensued with the council. Attempts to claw back some of the money spent failed last year in what was branded "slap in the face of taxpayer". These days much of the site is empty or covered with fly-tipped rubbish.
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