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Anger as travellers evicted from 2012 site are given £2m homes
Ellen Widdup17.02.09
GIPSIES evicted from the site of the London Olympics are being given new homes in a gated development - costing the taxpayer £2 million.
Six three-bedroom bungalows, each with a garden and a drive big enough for a caravan, have been built in Millfields Road, Clapton.
Work on the new complex began straight after the traveller families lost a High Court battle against being evicted from their council-owned site in Waterden Crescent, Hackney Wick. Three indoor arenas will be built there to host 2012 events.
However, the new development has angered residents. Patricia Chin, 64, whose terrace home is opposite it, said: "The houses they are building for them are massive. We pay huge sums in council tax but don't get this kind of special treatment. The council even wants to charge us to park outside our homes - while these travellers get their own driveways." Flat-dweller Katrina Gorse, 29, said: "My children have to share a room - but they get all that space. I thought the whole idea of being a traveller was that you lived in a caravan."
A spokesman for the London Development Agency, which is responsible for the new site, said the traveller families were among 450 residents who had to be relocated. "There were no existing sites to accommodate these families so the new travellers' site was selected in consultation with Hackney council," he said. Each family will be charged £104.66-a-week rent plus £91.23 a week to park a caravan on the drive.
