Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Travellers Lives in Turmoil after eviction

James Hore | 04.03.2004 16:45 | Analysis | Repression | Cambridge | London

A TRAVELLING community evicted from land in Essex have been forced to split up to secure a place to live.

Bailiffs removed about 15 families living on farmland at Little Waltham, near Chelmsford, during violent scenes last month because they did not have planning permission to stay there.
The travellers protested that they had stayed peacefully and were not causing harm but Chelmsford Borough Council spent more than £100,000 to move them on.
The council defended its actions saying the caravans on the field were there unlawfully and had to go.
But yesterday, one of the displaced families said they had lost their life savings buying a plot of land at the site before they were ejected and put on the road.
Lilly McCann said her family had been content at Little Waltham where the children had all been happy at local schools.
She said, “Why do it? We were not doing any harm but living there and they spent a lot of money tearing it down which could have been spent on schools or put into the community.”
Yesterday one of the formers Little Waltham travellers, Lilly McCann, spoke from a short-term travellers site in South Mimms on the M25.
Mrs McCann, who has five children, said the eviction had caused her to become suicidal.
She said: “It has been very distressing as we had to sell our big van as there is not room for it here.
Everyone from the old site has gone their separate ways and the children are unhappy.
“I felt like taking an overdose and ending it all, my whole life has been messed up, if it was not for my kids I would have.
“The children were in school, yes they have started back in another school, but one of them, Jimmy, is struggling and has started wetting the bed.
Mrs McCann said some families were at Potters Bar, but she was not sure where all of her old friends were.
After 13 weeks the McCann family will have to leave their current site again and find somewhere else to live.
Cliff Codona, the chairman of the National Travellers Action Group said many of those from Little Waltham were now desolate, including pregnant women.
He said: “As far as they are concerned, the council, the police and the Government are trash and they will never ever trust them again. They destroyed any trust that day.
“The Gypsy community does not want anything from anybody, they don’t want hand-outs and don’t want the state to keep them.
“We don’t want to be parasites as we are portrayed. I don’t want you to pay for anything for me, please understand that.”
“What is being done to Gypsies in this country is absolutely disgusting, my advice to the Gypsies of Eastern Europe is don’t come here.
“I have a British passport, I was born here in the UK but I have no more rights than a rat in a ditch just because of my way of life that is centuries old to me.
“It was absolutely disgusting - Essex police and the Essex authorities were disgraceful and the Government also for allowing it to happen - there is no way they can justify what happened.
Neil Gulliver, Chelmsford borough council’s executive member for planning and transport, said the authority already had the third highest provision of official traveller sites in Essex.
He has stated: “The problem of finding suitable sites for travellers to live on is a national one and it needs a national solution.”

-Essex County Council provides 11 semi-permanent sites for travellers in the county, catering for about 200 people, although there are none available in the areas of Colchester or Tendring.
Last night, Kay Twitchen, the Essex County Council cabinet member for the environment said the authority was recognised as leading the way on the issue.
She said: “The sites across Essex are very well run but there is a waiting list.
We don’t have a duty to provide sites and there is no more Government so even if we wanted to set up more sites there would not be funding.”


James Hore
- e-mail: jimmyjames49@hotmail.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech