Irish Travelers Ordered Evicted from English Suburb

The Washington Times ^ | 19 September 2011 | Jill Lawless

[Senator Goldwater]

CRAYS HILL, England — Vivien Slattery has lived her whole life in a tidy mobile home, one of dozens more like it on a crowded site beside green English fields.

Soon, baby Vivien, 16 days old, and more than 200 others will be evicted from the settlement east of London, the losers in a decade-long battle between local officials and their community of Irish Travelers that has drawn attention around the world and concern from the United Nations.

The local authority says it's a simple planning issue: The 86 families lack permission to pitch homes on the land.

The Travelers — a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy, or Roma, people — call it ethnic cleansing.

The conflict over the settlement, known as Dale Farm, has raged since 2001, when Travelers bought and settled on a former scrapyard 30 miles east of London. The local authority waged a long legal battle to remove them, which it finally won at Britain's High Court last month.

Evictions are scheduled to begin Monday.

Academy Award-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave has come to the community's support, and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities "to find a peaceful and appropriate solution" to the crisis.

Yves Cabannes, a U.N. adviser on forced evictions, said last week that Britain is violating international laws by ousting the Travelers.

"After 10 years, when we have exhausted the judicial process and made every effort to negotiate, we have no option but to resort to direct action to clear the site," council leader Tony Ball said in a statement.

The protesters are among about 50 activists — anarchists, anti-capitalists, anti-racists and human rights monitors — who have set up a supporters' camp at the site. They say they will resist, physically but nonviolently.

[Senator Goldwater]

"Yves Cabannes, a U.N. adviser on forced evictions, said last week that Britain is violating international laws by ousting the Travelers. "

Where the hell does the UN have the authority to weigh in on what is essentially a local zoning issue inside the UK?

[twister881]

In the U.S., the Travelers are grifters who prey on the elderly and unsuspecting...vermin.

[ReneeLynn]

Ah, the UN.

[Senator Goldwater]

"Academy Award-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave... anarchists, anti-capitalists"

No surprises here.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I assumed while reading this that the objection to the travelers being there was that the site was a dump previously - but after looking up “greenfield site” it sounds like it has nothing to do with the cleanliness or safety of the land. So is this actually a zoning issue?

[bgill]

According to the article, the Travelers’ own the property but apparently it's not zoned for camping or residences. There seems to be two legals issues here, one the zoning and the other eminent domain. While I don't agree with eminent domain, they are breaking the law living there.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Why are they referred to as Irish ?

[JimRed]

Have they evicted the anarchists from Wall Street yet?

[Vigilanteman]

Sounds like a zoning issue to me. It says they bought and paid for the land 10 years ago.

If the zoning ordinances didn't specifically prohibit trailer courts, high density housing or whatever, then the authorities are off-base.

If it did, then the Travelers either need to bring things into conformance or sell out and move on.

That being said, how much luck do you suppose we in the United States would have trying to make a once-nice neighborhood taken over by illegal aliens conform to local zoning laws?

[twister881]

Ethnic heritage — in the U.S., they congregate mainly in the south — Scots-Irish descent. In Ireland and the UK, they are indeed Irish.

[dennisw]

Yves Cabannes is a poster-boy for the charade that is the UN

By Melanie Phillips

15th September 2011

You might think that Prof Cabannes would have his work out running round the world from tyranny to tyranny investigating the plight of people forced from their homes in an arbitrary and illegal manner through ethnic cleansing, for example, wars or religious persecution. The Third World is chock-full full of refugees. In Zimbabwe, for example, as a result of the mass forced evictions programme carried out in June and July 2005 in which more than 700,000 people lost their homes or their livelihoods, thousands of people are even now living in inadequate conditions.

So where would you expect to find Prof Cabannes raising the UN standard in defence of those evicted from their homes by the monstrous tyrannies of this earth? Africa? Azerbaijan? China? Egypt? Turkey?

No. Basildon.

Basildon?

Yup, it turns out that Basildon council in Essex should be considered a flagrant human rights abuser, on a par with the most evil regimes in the world. So what did Basildon do to deserve this damning designation? It had the brazen gall to uphold English law and enforce it against those who were breaking it.

Yes, you read that right. Indeed, in the eyes of Prof Cabannes Basildon should be effectively twinned with Zimbabwe for evicting some 400 travellers who had been illegally occupying plots on Dale Farm, Essex.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2037765/Yves-Cabannes-poster-boy-charade-UN.html#ixzz1YQ0VmBCY

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I thought they were Roma people...

[Cyman]

Hilarious look at a British interpretation of the Travelers in the movie “ Snatch”.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

My first thought, while thinking it had to do with contaminated land, was that in the U.S., after being evicted the landowners would then sue the seller for damages!

My question is why has it taken 10 years if the local government really had the zoning rights?

Have you seen the tv show about the Travelers? They are definitely odd by our standards - marry young with low education standards, but, they usually stay married and even though they dress like prostitutes to catch a man, they aren't promiscuous at all - they make the guy "put a ring on it".

[Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness]

The way Sky News is reporting it (I'm watching it live in Blighty right now) is that the pikey travellers legally own a parcel of land (in Basildon), but are squatting on an adjacent parcel. It's this parcel that removal is being pursued by Basildon's town council (their local government).

The pikeys have won a temporary injunction against the order, so the drama will continue a bit longer, at least until Friday.

These people are generally human refuse, squatting on whatever private property they can. If you've been to England and have seen the bars across the parking lots, those are to keep the pikey vermin out. If they don't do this, the scum will pull up in their trailers (caravans) and set up home. The landowner will spend weeks, if not months, trying to have them removed.

The worthless UK police (you saw them in action during last month's riots) won't get involved in these property 'disputes', trespassing is something they don't understand. In fact, the people that will enforce their removal are hired by the town council to do it. There's actually a business here that specializes in pikey removal (it must be the human version of ridding one's home of vermin).

The travellers are generally thieves and scam artists, there's not too many UK natives who speak well of them so they get very little sympathy from the public. Of course, there are moonbat libtards (the UK has more than it should) who are rallying around the pikeys, claiming it's a human right to be a thieving vagrant.

Removing them in Basildon won't solve the problem. It's like cockroaches running for cover when a light is shined upon them. The pikeys will just move to other locations, and the several years long process to remove large numbers of the squatters will start again, it will be some other council's problem.

Here in America we have jails and lead as a solution for travellers.

[Scotsman will be Free]

Gypsies are liars, thieves and cheats.

[Robert DeLong]

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, campaigner Marina Pepper poses for a photograph at the Dale Farm travelers site near Basildon, Essex, England. Within days, more than 200 people will be evicted from Dale Farm, the losers in a decade-long battle between local officials and their community of Irish Travelers that has drawn attention around the world and concern from the United Nations. The local authority says it's a simple planning issue - the 86 families lack permission to pitch homes on the land. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP

[longtermmemmory]

IOW gypsies.

IOOW the same type just busted for keeping slaves in the UK.

watch crime drop.

[rogue yam]

My question is why has it taken 10 years if the local government really had the zoning rights?

I think it is a mistake to assume that government corruption and inefficiency can't explain any delay in government action.