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Open letter to UK Government on Eve of Local Elections

Cliff Codona
chair UK Forum
affiliated to the European Roma
and Travellers Forum, Strasbourg

Over the past several years, hundreds of Gypsy families have been "cleared" from their own properties; often this has been from land we have purchased in good faith on the advice of the Government, following passage of the Criminal Justice Act, l994. Mine was one such instance, where a group of families intended to provide for their own needs on what had previously been a touring caravan site.

Overall figures show that the contribution by our private sector amounts to more than 30% of the plots or individual yards avail to Gypsies and Travellers. Everyone recognises that this would be substantially higher but for the difficulties we encounter when
applying for planning permission; coupled with high land prices.

The loss of private yards, in addition the the closing of public-sector sites by councils (since the duty to maintain sites was removed) has brought great hardship. This has been worsened by the decrease in tolerance and a rise in racism notable throughout Britain.

Although, as we concluded at the ODPM, the really hardline attitude is confined to a limited number of local authorities (perhaps 50), the impact of these on our
community has frankly become intolerable. As we experience it, they are using, or misusing, planning regulations as a smokescreen for a policy of ethnic-
cleansing.

To quote one example: Tory-led Basildon council have voted to spend up to £3 million to bulldoze the homes of 86 families at Dale Farm because they occupy a small
area of greenbelt, most of which comprised a licensed scrapyard, previously piled with wrecked cars.

One of our prime concern is the way operations have been carried out by Constant & Co., the largest of the bailiff companies "specialising" in this gipsy evict work. Our complaints against this company include:

1) needlessly burning property, including homes (caravans) and huts; 2) endangering the lives of children and elderly persons through disregard of health and safety regulations;
3) blocking rights of way, 4) damage to topsoil; 5) leaving exposed electric wiring.

You have to see video film to appreciate that far from "restoring" the rural aspect of land, this company has left properties (still owned by Gypsy families) in a despoiled
and ugly state, topsoil removed, surrounded by earth banks and due to destruction of drainage systems often flooded. During the last eviction, at Hoverfields Drive, Wickford, Essex (since halted by a Judicial Review), cess tanks were broken
and left to contaminate the area and a private yard under protection of an Injunction had fencing and hardstanding smashed by a JCB, owned by H.E.Services Ltd.

The UK Forum has already felt it necessary, in our efforts to obtain respect for the human rights of our people, to mount complaints about the conduct of Constant (and others)
and the councils who hire them through the European Roma and Travellers Forum in Strasbourg, and other leading NGOs. These include Advocacy Watch in Washington, the IAI in Italy and, as part of a European-wide survey, Genocide Watch.

We concede that there are circumstances when land in greenbelt may have to be vacated. Our aim is to see that families have an alternate home to go to. Very rarely should it be necessary to "call in the heavies" has has been done wholesale
in recent years.

If eviction becomes unavoidable, then the professional companies involved, and the councils who hire them, must conduct themselves in a proper manner; in accordance with their own professed standards, within the regulations and all the legal
requirements.

At the eviction at Twin Oaks Farm, near South Mimms, Hertfordshire, last year, which I attended, small children were made to stand out in the cold at 5 am in the morning, gas-pipes were ripped from canisters and an elderly invalid using a wheelchair, Mrs Ann Egan, had the roof of her chalet broken down over her head. This is not how people should be treated under a Labour or any other government.

E-mail: codona9@aol.com