Travellers heed Gypsy Wedding star’s call to visit Dale Farm

Travellers from across the country are heading to Dale Farm in Essex this weekend to support up to 400 people faced with eviction on Monday, the Gypsy Council said yesterday.

They are answering a call for help from the star of TV's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Paddy Doherty, who asked for "anyone and everyone and anyone, to come and show their support".

Residents and their supporters were erecting extra barricades at the site yesterday in preparation for the clearances by bailiffs working for Basildon Council. Up to 13 families have already left the site voluntarily and at least two have sold the chalets they built there.

The solicitor for the residents, Keith Coughtrie, said their fight would go back to court on Monday, with a new application to appeal against a High Court decision in August, which allowed the evictions. Their first application to appeal was turned down yesterday.

An elderly resident of the farm, Mary Flynn, has one final chance to challenge the eviction.

A spokeswoman for the Judicial Office said Mrs Flynn was making a last-ditch application at an oral hearing in court on Monday – the day of the evictions – before Lord Justice Pill.