A RETIRED teacher who is acting as a observer at the travellers site in Dale Farm, Basildon, has described the menacing atmosphere.

Jan Plumber, 65, from Colchester, is taking part in the daily protests at the site.

Mrs Plumber, who used to teach children from the travelling community at a mobile school in the Midlands, is one of 126 observers.

Campaigners on website dalefarm.wordpress have appealed for human rights monitors/legal observers to film and watch the eviction to see if protesters and bailiffs obey the law.

Mrs Plumber said: “It can be a horrible atmosphere with the bailiffs keeping a constant presence there.

“They have all the machinery there and bulldozers ready to go into the site and dogs in the compound barking at night.

“The general air is quite menacing and emotions are running high.”

Protesters have set up their own compound known as Camp Constant at the site.

Mrs Plumber says her day begins by walking around the site and talking to travellers, protesters and residents.

She said: “We have had visits by priests from the Irish community who have blessed the mobile homes on the site because that is what the travellers are most afraid of; losing their homes.

“When the first group of travellers left a few weeks ago, I will never forget how sad and hopeless they looked as they were packing up.

“They said they had nowhere to go and a lot of them feel like they have no future.

“At Dale Farm the elderly and disabled were getting access to healthcare and the children were getting an education, now they have to start all over again somewhere else.

“It has been amazing how well the children are coping with it all and they often play games with the protesters.

“People are generally trying to keep the mood as positive as possible.”

Former Essex University student Elias Tawil, 32, of Groves Close, Colchester, has been at the site to show his support.

He said: “It is important to support these travellers.

“I feel they’re being stigmatised for who they are and their way of life, just like they have been in the past.

“Sometimes I ask myself what I would have done if I was in 1938 Germany and I would have probably obeyed the unjust laws and authorities out of fear.

“Here and now is a democracy and we have the right to protest against injustice.”

A High Court judge yesterday ruled 49 of the 54 plots should be removed, pending further hearings this week.

Basildon Council has been trying to remove travellers from the Dale Farm site for a decade. The six-acre site is on greenbelt land and is thought to house about 400 people illegally.

The clearance was halted earlier this month when lawyers for the travellers obtained a High Court injunction preventing bailiffs moving in while the courts were asked to rule on several areas of contention.

It will cost up to £18million to remove the travellers.