Dale Farm is a former scrapyard that was bought by several traveller families who moved on to the site a decade ago.

Within a year other families had bought patches of land and moved their caravans there but it has been the council's case that this part of the site is greenbelt land.

These moves were brought to the attention of local council planners who applied for the people to be moved and this sparked a long legal battle at the same time as more travellers arrived to make their homes on the site.

Travellers upgraded their homes by replacing caravans with chalets and other semi-permanent structures.

The legal battle exhausted all avenues of appeal for the residents and Basildon Council was given authority to begin evictions earlier this year.

Resident Kathleen McCarthy, a spokesman for the community who has lived on the site for 10 years, said: "We are living on a hope that they will realise we are not animals - we are humans."
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