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Gipsies camp opposite Tessa Jowell's home

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    Gipsies camp opposite Tessa Jowell's home

    Photo: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/grap...njowell124.jpg

    Gipsies have set up a large camp in a field just 200 yards from the country home of Government minister Tessa Jowell.

    Dozens of travellers piled on to the site over the bank holiday weekend, setting up a water supply and laying electricity cables. Fencing was also erected, hedges pulled down and concrete paths laid

    The 64 travellers used diggers to lay hardcore, install electricity cables and water pipes, build fences and rip down hedges, before rolling on a fleet of caravans, trucks, and cars.

    They used the four-day Easter break to build the illegal encampment, knowing that planning officers would be on holiday.


    David Mills, the estranged husband of the Olympics Minister, who owns the spacious Cotswold home, described the development as an "outrageous breach of planning law".

    The gipsies bought the two-and-a-half acre field, which had been pasture land, from a local farmer last year without telling him they were travellers.
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    It sits beside the Fosse Way near Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire. One gipsy boasted it could take the authorities eight years to evict them after they had exhausted all their legal rights.

    They include Article Eight of the Human Rights Act - brought in by the Labour Government - which states that everyone has the right to a private and family life.

    A local councillor indicated it could take a long time to remove the gipsies.

    Chris Saint, a councillor with both Stratford District Council and Warwickshire County Council, said: "We live in a world of regulation and we have to go through due process."

    The field is zoned as agricultural land so nobody is allowed to live on it without seeking planning permission first.

    But the gipsies may seek retrospective planning permission and live in the field until their application has been rejected.

    Mr Saint added: "It's an understatement to say people are upset by this.

    "From the first thing on Friday morning, when the phone calls started to come in, the whole thing was described to me by residents with considerable alarm.

    "We view it with alarm because I have no information about a planning application even being lodged, let alone granted, and I would be the first to know."

    Up until Thursday the field was "just pasture land" but on Friday he received a call saying there was "frenzied activity" taking place on the plot.

    "I understand that water and electricity have been brought on and I also understand they have put in a sceptic tank and put down roads and fencing," he said.

    The gipsies admitted targeting the bank holiday weekend to launch their construction blitz, with one saying: "We purposefully chose the Easter holiday weekend so that we could get more done before anybody tried to stop us."

    Mr Saint said there had not been any friction so far between locals and the four traveller families in the group, as both sides had avoided each other.

    But he said: "There are concerns of how these people would integrate within the local community and it's infrastructure."

    Mr Mills, 53, told The Sun: "What has happened is a fairly outrageous breach of planning law. They have done a hell of a lot in a short time. I am genuinely sympathetic to people like them.

    "We all need a place to live but, equally so, all have to obey the planning laws. "I'm sure the council will deal with the matter quickly."

    Miss Jowell, 60, would only say that it was a matter for her estranged husband. She said: "It's my husband's house and my husband and I are separated. It's for him to manage."

    The couple separated in March 2006 after he was accused by Italian prosecutors of taking a £344,000 bribe from ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in return for giving a favourable testimony of Mr Berlusconi in court.

    Miss Jowell was dragged into the affair when it emerged that she had signed papers connected to a loan secured on their London home, which was subsequently paid off with the help of the alleged bribe. She has always insisted that she believed the deal involved no conflict of interest.

    They have since sold the £950,000 north London house. Mr Mills, a lawyer, is due to face trial on corruption charges next month in Italy.

    He has denied the money came from Mr Berlusconi.

    -------

    Surely corrupt non-independent UK courts would just bypass the due process after a phone call from a miniter of the crown?

    #2
    Good find AtW. This story is one that is going to be quite interesting to watch.
    Insanity: repeating the same actions, but expecting different results.
    threadeds website, and here's my blog.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by AtW View Post

      -------

      Surely corrupt non-independent UK courts would just bypass the due process after a phone call from a miniter of the crown?

      minister



      How to get back at your husband part 1.
      "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by SueEllen View Post
        minister



        How to get back at your husband part 1.
        She doesn't want to "get back at her husband". The "separation" is a sham. They still see each other.

        Tessa Jowell is merely "distancing herself" until after the trial which of course will not result in a conviction...

        Churchill.

        Comment


          #5
          Does anybody think she will care, they can just live in one of their other houses (assuming she does get back with her husband)

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Ardesco View Post
            Does anybody think she will care
            Yes she will - it's still her house. Plus a lot of people who don't like her will keep reminding her about that situation.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by AtW View Post
              Yes she will - it's still her house. Plus a lot of people who don't like her will keep reminding her about that situation.
              her estranged husbands house

              Comment


                #8
                This could have easily been solved by the locals forming a "lynch mob" and driving the Gypsies out.
                ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

                Comment


                  #9
                  Love it!

                  It couldn't have happened to a 'nicer' person! She is the sort that would defend their 'human rights' if they did it to others! What goes round, comes round, best news today!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by SueEllen View Post
                    Originally posted by AtW
                    Surely corrupt non-independent UK courts would just bypass the due process after a phone call from a miniter of the crown?
                    minister

                    How to get back at your husband part 1.
                    munter

                    Comment

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