Grattan Puxon
secretary
Dale Farm Housing Association
dale.farm ( a t ) ntlworld.com
To:
Mr Hugh Edeleanu
chair
H.E.Services
Whitehall Road
Strood, Kent ME2 4DZ
Re: Work with Constant & Co
18 August 2005
Dear Mr Edeleanu,
Not having heard from you, I'm sending this to you a second time.
I am writing to you because I have some concerns regarding your recent work with Constant & Co., the bailiff company which was brought in by Basildon District Council to evict families from their land at Hoverfields Avenue, Wickford, Essex.
On Tuesday, 26 July this year, I saw two heavy machines from your company at work clearing the property known as Dunroamin.
During the morning, while going to this site, one of your machines broke down the fences on the property of Mrs Gilheaney, known as Ash View. Lengths of fencing on two sides of her property were destroyed and the driver drove the machine across her land.
Whether you were informed by Mr Constant I do not know but certainly you should have been made aware at the start of the operation that Mrs Gilheaney and the Ash View property is under the protection of a High Court Injunction.
The action of your company could therefore be treated as a breach of the Injunction and indeed viewed as contempt by the High Court.
Certainly, Mrs Gilheaney is entitled to claim damages.
However, up to this point no legal proceedings have been initiated, although I have sent a report and photographs to Mr Jeremy Brown, solicitor, who obtained the Injunction.
Our greater concern is that you may be considering hiring out some of your machines and drivers to Constant & Co., for the much large eviction of some 85 families from their properties at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, near Wickford.
I am the secretary of the Dale Farm Housing Association, which is involved in talks to bring about an alternative solution.
Meanwhile, similar to Hoverfields Avenue, the entire area of Dale Farm is currently subject to Injunctions which prevent any enforcement action being taken, pending a Judicial Review.
Given that there is now time for all parties to reflect on what is to happen here, should the eviction be allowed at a later date to go ahead, I would repectively ask you to consider your own and your comopany's involvement.
This eviction would be a very traumatic and violent event, according to an assessment made by the Wickford Primary Care Trust. Children will inevitably be hurt, mentally and very possibly physically. There are a number of elderly and sick people with homes at Dale Farm, who if these homes are bulldozed (by H.E.Services plant?) will have nowhere to live.
I'm sure you can imagine the whole human catastrophe without my needing to spell it out further.
There have been many brutal scenes during similar evictions carried out by Constant & Co during the past 18 months. At Chelmsford in 2003, caravans, including a mobile home, were burned. At Borehamwood last January, a home and its contents were set on fire and a lot of personal property, inluding the wheelchairs of an elderly invalid, needlessly crushed.
A Human Rights Monitoring team, including Jewish members, are on standy by to be present at Dale Farm and there is considerable media interest.
I hope therefore that after reading this appeal you will be able to assure us that H.E.Services will have no part in the planned eviction at Dale Farm, should it ever be attempted.
Yours sincerely
Grattan Puxon Dale Farm Housing Association