Eviction of travellers 'to cost £10million'
THE eviction of occupants in Europe’s biggest travellers’ camp could cost taxpayers £10million, it was revealed yesterday.
Police have drawn up plans to force 1,000 travellers from the illegal camp but have warned of the escalating bill for the action.
The occupants were ordered off the squalid Crays Hill encampment seven years ago. Besieged villagers’ hopes of returning to normal life have been thwarted by protracted legal battles.
In January 2009 the Court of Appeal finally gave the 90 families living at the notorious site their marching orders – but they are still there.
Yesterday the travellers insisted they would not be leaving the camp near Billericay, Essex.
Essex Police say they do not have the funds to pay for the operation and have applied for extra Government cash. Senior officers have drawn up contingency plans, include drafting in riot teams and hundreds of officers from outside the area if they face violent opposition.
They believe eviction could take two weeks and the bulk of the bill will go in police pay. If the travellers go peacefully it could still cost £2million. But police fear groups of anarchists will join them in their stand against the bulldozers.
Len Gridley, who has suffered the sprawling site next door for 10 years, said: “If the police can’t go in there, they should send in the Army.”