The Dale Farm traveller's site. Photo credit: The Advocacy Project http://www.flickr.com/photos/advocacy_project/5929487737/sizes/z/in/photostream/
The BBC reported that Mary Flynn, 72, who lives on Dale Farm and is severely ill, will apply for an injunction to stop the evictions on the grounds that “switching off the electricity would be a threat to her health as the power is needed to drive the nebuliser that helps her breathe.” The Times added that the Dale Farm site, “which was formerly a car scrapyard, is owned by the travellers but planning permission for more than 50 pitches has been refused despite repeated applications.” The families’ cause has been taken up by human rights campaigners from across Europe, who have set up ‘Camp Constant’ next to the site and plan to form a human barricade alongside residents if the bulldozers arrive later tonight.
- Vanessa Redgrave gets involved. Actress and veteran human rights activist Vanessa Redgrave has also lent her support to the travellers. The Guardian reported that she visited Dale Farm yesterday and spent time with some of the families, declaring that “I’d be happy to live here with them, that’s for sure.” Redgrave praised the “big society” of Dale Farm and went on to compare the community favourably with other parts of the UK. “We used to live in communities,” she was quoted as saying. “We had a post office and we had our little local shops, which would help elderly people. Our communities up and down the country have been decimated and destroyed. Dale Farm hasn’t.”
