Dale Farm protest ends in arrests

Two demonstrators supporting the Travellers faced with eviction from Dale Farm have been arrested after a protest outside the offices of Basildon Council.

The pair climbed on top of a revolving door at the council's offices and held a banner aloft. They called for the leader of the council, Tony Ball, to resign. Fellow members of the Dale Farm Solidarity group said yesterday that they acted with the support of their colleagues, who had decided the protest should be staged "by consensus".

The protesters, aged 22 and 29, have not been named by Essex police, which said yesterday it sent officers to the council building because of "concerns for the safety of those protesters and visitors to the building".

A statement read: "The protesters came down of their accord at around 12.30pm and were arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence."

The group has been at Dale Farm since late August, when their site, called Camp Constant, was set up. They have helped build barricades and some attached themselves to the defences as bailiffs moved in last week.