Traveller families ‘manning barricades’ after court blow

Residents of the Dale Farm site near Basildon, Essex, said they had gone into “lockdown” and were preparing to “fight off the bailiffs”.

A Court of Appeal judge yesterday refused travellers permission to continue their legal fight against Basildon Council.

Lord Justice Sullivan said there was no evidence likely to persuade appeal judges the council’s decision to enforce eviction notices was unlawful.

Lawyers representing the council said officials were making preparations to take action at the site, said to contain more than 80 families on 50 plots.

A spokeswoman for support group Dale Farm Solidarity said residents and supporters had gone into “lockdown” in “anticipation of an eviction”.

“Today the Dale Farm community were rejected the right to appeal,” said the spokeswoman. “In response to this news, residents of Dale Farm and their supporters reinforced the perimeter of the 50 plots, which house 83 families, and placed the entire site into lockdown in order to resist eviction.”

Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy added: “The barricades are all that stand between us and homelessness now... We’ll have to fight off the bailiffs.”

Candy Sheridan, vice-chairman of the Gypsy Council and an adviser to the Dale Farm travellers, said of the court ruling: “It seems like the end of the road.”

Basildon Council’s Tory leader Tony Ball said Dale Farm residents had been “living on borrowed time” and urged them to leave “peacefully and in a safe and orderly fashion”.

“The so called supporters should also pack up their belongings and leave the site. If they have the travellers’ best interest at heart they will either leave the area now or confine their activities to helping the travellers to leave over the coming days,” he said.

“I am particularly concerned by reports that barricades have been strengthened over the weekend. This flies in the face of commonsense.”