Basildon Traveller site-eviction

[Banshee]

I cant believe the amount of money and time and effort that has been wasted in pursuing this case. What harm was being done? Travellers were living on land that they owned. Even after the eviction, Travellers will still be living there. Despite the impression the media have given. They are not evicting all, as some plots are legally allowed to stay. So what is the point?
We can have Travellers living on their own land, but not too many of them??? Is that it? So we have "quotas" for different ethnic groups now, have we?
What if they looked at any housing estate and looked at how many people have other members of their family or friends living with them, that are not on the tenancy agreement?
When this happens in other countries, theres a word for it......Ethnic cleansing! Apparently it is acceptable in this country if it is called "appropriate planning permission."

[Ann1]

TBH I'm in favour of kicking them out, and I don't care who they are. The fact that they are travelers is immaterial. They put up "structures" without planning permission. If we would have done that, we'd have had to knock them down sharpish. So either we have a free for all, with no planning restrictions at all, or people have to abide by the law as it stands. They own the land and have planning permission for a certain amount of dwellings, they have exceeded that. It would work exactly the same, if I put an extension on my house without planning permission. I would be told to knock it down. Whether you agree with the planning law as it stands doesn't matter, it is what it is, and they have broken it. Why should they be exempt, just because they are travelers? Anyway, if they are travelers, why don't they travel? Why build houses in the first place??

[Banshee]

But wouldn't it have been so much cheaper to have provided other sites for people to live on? Then there would have been no excuse for not moving on. The money this has cost the people of Basildon is horrific to think of. The council leaders are paid a lot of money to do their job, and to come up with alternative cost affective solutions. Wages paid for by the people. What a waste of money, that could have all been avoided with the right approach.
I cant believe that this was let go on for so long, without someone coming up with an alternative solution.