STF NA MÍDIA

from one town to another is
not a valid government policy."
It is a fear heard throughout
the Gypsy and Traveller
communities.
"There is this feeling that
after Dale Farm, nothing will
ever be the same again," says
Jo Cowley, health consultant
for the Gypsy Council. "There
is terror in the community,
I hear it every day, particularly
on those sites that have
got temporary planning permission
– they just feels like
the clock is ticking."
At the Meriden protest site,
with its bonhomie, piles of
donated books and locally
picked apples, Dougie Bacon,
vice-chairman of Raid,
says that the village s stand
was to protect its green belt,
and refuted any suggestion it
was racially motivated. In a
calm and measured fashion,
he says the village recognises
that everyone needs somewhere
to live, but the law
should treat everyone, Gypsy
or settled person, equally.
"We are not a bunch of rightwing
fanatics," he says.
"These are people who wanted
to retire here for peace
and quiet and security. This
is our village, our community
and our green belt. It is middle
England – we are the
centre of England here –
standing up and saying no."
On the monitored site next
door, while children play
noisily in large plastic boxes,
some are losing their stomach
for the fight. With fewer
places to put their caravans,
the Gypsies fear that their
assimilation into settled
communities – and the disappearance
of their way of
life – is only a matter of time.
"They want us to say we don
t want to be Gypsies any more,
we want to be like you –
but if we lose this we lose a
history, a way of life, a whole
culture," says Senga, looking
out of her caravan window
at the site. "We are not
asking for any handouts, just
the right to live on the land
we have paid for. We are
such a proud people. It s hard
for us to say we need help –
but for the love of God we
need help now."
JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE GUARDIAN (LO) • NEWS • 18/9/2011
Dale Farm prepares for its final battle
Residents await bailiffs as Basildon council starts eviction after Travellers 10-year s-
truggle to stay on Essex site
Peter Walker and Patrick
Barkham
Mary Flynn sees – and hears
– bailiffs everywhere. "You
wake at 4am, you wake at
2am, you wake at 1am. If
you hear the dustman coming,
you think, There they
are. If you hear a lorry coming,
you think, There they
are, we ve got to get up. "
After months of sleepless
nights, the fateful knock on
the door of the 72-year-old s
cream Vivaldi caravan could
come on Monday. Assuming
they make it past a network
of makeshift scaffold blockades
and hastily erected
brick walls, bailiffs employed
by Basildon council are
due to start the £18m eviction
of Travellers living at
Dale Farm on Monday morning.
The eviction process, which
is likely to be fraught and
complex, lasting several
days, will bring to a close a
10-year battle by the Traveller
families, numbering about
400 people in all, to remain
on the site in the Essex green
belt, which they own but for
which they have no planning
permission.
Final battle lines were being
drawn throughout Sunday.
As teams of men in highvisibility
jackets fenced off a
zone around the illegal section
of the community, inside
which bright yellow diggers
waited, those within the
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