DALE FARM: CRUCIAL VOTE<
Malcolm Buckley, Tory leader of Basildon district council, whose wife Sylvia chairs the development control committee which has recommended bulldozing Dale Farm, says in theory the full council could refuse to vote the £1.5 million needed for the job.
Can theory become the reality? That is a challenge surely all of us in this human rights campaign should eagerly take up!
That crucial meeting is taking place in Room 1 at the Basildon Centre, St Martin's Square, Basildon, on l4 July (starts 7.30 pm).
Room 1, the regular council chamber, is far smaller than the adjoining theatre used for the two previous committee meetings - including that on 8 June when Corin Regrave suffered a severe heart attack while pleading for the rights of all the families at Dale Farm.
Unlike at those committee meetings, members of the public will not be allowed to address the council. But they will be permitted to put questions - provided the question is submitted in advance.
Word is that if sufficient numbers of us put in questions, the council will probably have to provide a larger venue. And I'm sure a lot of those in the campaign can think up some effective and hard-hitting quiries for this council which is bent on inflicting brutal, and to my mind fascist-style, punishment on people who are simply in breach of a planning regulation - because the same council has chosen to put them in that position.
Your question should be emailed to:
malcom.buckley@members.basildon.gov.uk with copies to officials: graeme.bloomer@basildon.gov.uk doug.smith@basildon.gov.uk You might also send copies to geoffwilliams "at" cix.co.uk the Lib-Dem councillor who is opposing the eviction and has volunteered to act as a Human Rights Monitor.
Grattan Puxon