Travellers plot Pickles eviction

The Traveller Solidarity Network vowed to enact "the eviction to end all evictions" today to protest against the ethnic cleansing of Travellers and English Gypsies.

Demonstrators dressed as bailiffs will descend on the Department for Communities and Local Government in Whitehall on Friday - exactly one year on from the violent eviction of 83 families at Dale Farm in Essex.

Supporter Oscar Farrell said he "couldn't believe" what he saw around him that day.

"But it's not just Dale Farm, it's happening all over the UK - and Eric Pickles is leading the attack on Travellers.

"Evictions can only ever lead to more evictions," he said.

Displaced resident Mary Flynn agreed.

She said: "The way we're treated, it's like we're not human beings. We're seen as a problem that they need to get rid of.

"There are more Travellers than there are sites, so where do they expect us to live?"

The council had been legally obliged to provide 84 new caravan pitches before the Con-Dem coalition scrapped the legislation last April.

Many families now live in seriously overcrowded conditions with nearby relatives or on the road nearby.

Official figures for 2011 report that there are 15,274 sanctioned pitches for Travellers and English Gypsies across the country, but researchers say there are around 100,000 Travellers alone still in traditional caravans.