STF NA MÍDIA

camp were doing their best to
make the bailiffs job as difficult
as possible.
Much of the blockading,
which included a platform
balanced on precarious scaffold
stilts about 10 metres
above the main gate, has been
overseen by outside volunteers
who set up camp on
the site over recent weeks,
bringing with them expertise
and tactics honed on environmental
protests. These
will include "locking on", in
which activists and residents
will attach themselves using
locks to caravans or other
fixed objects. David, a 46-
year-old roofer from Northumberland
who was mixing
mortar for a brick wall
being built across the likely
path of the diggers, said he
was one of the few with no
previous experience. "This is
the first protest I ve ever been
on," he said. "I read about
what was happening in the
papers and thought: this isn t
right. The idea they re spending
£18m to break up a
community seems crazy."
Throughout Sunday a stream
of cars and vans left the site,
ferrying children, some older
residents and valuables to the
adjoining legal section. In the
evening the main gates were
closed, with supporters further
reinforcing them from
inside.
While the Travellers are grateful
to the activists – and for
other outside voices of support,
which have included a
UN race relations committee
and the Council of Europe s
commissioner for human
rights – the abiding mood
remained one of pessimism.
"What am I feeling? I m heartbroken
for myself, but I m
also heartbroken for the old
people and the children. How
are they going to cope?," said
Kathleen McCarthy, 48, who
spent the day moving her
valuables and overseeing the
evacuation of two infant
grandchildren and a heavily
pregnant daughter-in-law.
She, like other residents, says
she is terrified the eviction
could become violent: "Whatever
happens it is Basildon
council s problem. They caused
it. Even now we re pleading
with them to stop all
this."
Residents have submitted
planning applications for
smaller sites on land where
the owners have signalled
they would be happy with a
Traveller community. Mc-
Carthy said she did not understand
why Basildon had
not waited for these to be
considered.
"My whole family is here,
and just about everyone here
is family. There s my children,
grandchildren, my sisters
and brothers, my mother,
my aunts, my uncles. How
can we all live together again?
Would they do this to any
other group of people? Any
other community wouldn t be
treated the way we are being
treated."
The council, which claims
overwhelming local support
for its tough line, says that if
bailiffs get access to the site
on Monday all they will do is
formally request that residents
leave. Coming days
will see the removal of caravans
and mobile homes, after
which the asphalt roads will
be ripped up by diggers. Basildon
says it does not believe
there are any fixed homes
on the site, meaning none
will be demolished.
The council s leader warned
of possible violence, alleging
activists unilaterally cancelled
a meeting with officials
to discuss the eviction process.
"We are very concerned
that tension has increased
and it may now make our job
of clearing the site in a safe
and orderly manner even
more difficult," said Tony
Ball. "It now seems that those
who claim to have the
Travellers interests at heart
are more intent on causing
trouble and disorder."
A spokesman for the site
described this as a "smear
story", saying the Travellers
did want to meet the council
but had simply requested this
happened somewhere other
than at Dale Farm.
According to Flynn, who has
osteoporosis and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease,,
needing a nebuliser four
times a day, the impending
eviction has made life unbearable.
When the bulldozers
arrived last week, her daughters
struggled to persuade
their children to get on the
school bus: "They are terrified.
They won t go to school.
They say You won t be here
when I get back. They are
going to take us away from
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