ENFORCEMENT notices will be served on illegally camped Dale Farm Travellers for the second time in four months – but only after electricity is restored to plots on the Crays Hill site.
The notices will be handed to Travellers by next Tuesday as soon as Basildon Borough Council contractors finish re-laying power cables to three legal plots which were dug up during the October site clearance.
The work is in compliance with a High Court order made prior to the eviction, which saw bailiffs force up to 400 Gypsies off the five-acre green belt site. The council will then look to deal with a number of breaches of planning regulations on the legal Oak Lane traveller site – which adjoins the former illegal site, and to which many of the ravellers relocated.
The authority, which has not yet confirmed how much it spent on the eviction, will also serve notices on up to 20 caravans parked without planning permission along the access road to the Oak Lane site.
Meanwhile, Essex Police have revealed that they spent £2.375 million of public money to help with the clearance of Dale Farm.
A police spokesman said a breakdown of costs, as well as other information as yet undisclosed, will be published by the end of the month.
Essex Police had secured £9.5 million from the Home Office to cover their potential eviction costs.
Speaking about the reinstallation of electricity cables and further enforcement action, council leader Tony Ball said: "We have got to comply with what the High Court has told us to do first.
"We don't want to get the waters muddied by [the Travellers'] claims that we have not complied with the law on our part. We will then serve the enforcement notices on breaches of planning regulations on the legal site and breaches along the road."
Mr Ball confirmed that additional Travellers had turned up along the roadside.
He said: "Some of the caravans along the road are occupied by people who weren't at Dale Farm before."
Ramsden Crays Parish councillors met last week to discuss Dale Farm, which has become a haunt for fly-tippers since the eviction.
Councillor David McPherson-Davis said: "This is far from finished.
"It's an ongoing situation that needs to be resolved quickly."
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