1,000 travellers face eviction

MORE than 60 traveller families face eviction from unauthorised sites on green belt land after a ruling by the Court of Appeal.

Three judges reversed a High Court ruling that stopped Basildon district council clearing the land in Billericay. They said the court had been wrong to find consideration had not been given to individual families.

The council voted to remove more than 1,000 people in 2005 as there was no planning permission for their caravans.

Permission had been granted for 40 families to settle at Dale Farm but many more have since arrived there and at nearby Five Acres Farm.