Dale Farm residents win further reprieve - The Guardian

Travellers at the Dale Farm site in Essex have won yet another legal delay, preventing bailiffs from beginning eviction work until the end of this week at the earliest.

A high court judge agreed with arguments, put on behalf of a resident representing the 86 families, who have lived at the site near Basildon for up to a decade, that council enforcement notices were insufficiently clear.

Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart extended a temporary injunction preventing Basildon council from clearing the site until a separate hearing examining a potential judicial review of the decision takes place on Thursday. Even if the council wins that case, it will be prevented from carrying out work on much of the site until another hearing next Monday, which will examine the enforcement notices.

While the reprieve may prove only temporary – the first evictions could, theoretically, begin on Friday – it is another psychological boost for the Traveller families, who have fought an exhaustive and inventive legal effort to thwart efforts to remove them from the section of the green belt site for which they do not have planning permission.

The move is yet another headache for Basildon council, which says the eviction process could cost as much as £18m. Amid bullish statements by the council leader, Tony Ball, bailiffs and diggers set up outside the now-fortified site more than a week ago, but have yet to begin work.

The courtroom was packed with residents, who expressed satisfaction with the decision. "Every day is a blessing and we feel that at least our arguments are being listened to," Kathleen McCarthy said outside the court. "One thing is certain: we will all stand together. Either we all go or none of us go. We will not let the council divide us."

The judge said legal issues were connected to virtually every plot on the site. These related mainly to whether some structures had been identified in council enforcement notices drawn up from 2002 to 2004, and whether the notices permitted the removal of fences and gates. The legal delay had happened "mainly because the terms of the enforcement notices … may not have been sufficiently precisely drawn" , he said.

Basildon's argument that it could do "anything that is reasonably necessary" to evict the Travellers was "too wide", the judge added.

In conjunction with their legal efforts, the Travellers have enlisted help from political activists, who have ringed the Dale Farm site with scaffold barriers and other structures designed to impede the bailiffs. This group has assisted with a parallel PR offensive, which has called repeatedly for Basildon to negotiate to find a way the community can stay together.

The council says it has strong local support to remove a longstanding illegal site.