A VILLAGE became a violent battlefield yesterday as police and demolition contractors clashed with hundreds of migrant workers who were trying to prevent their “luxury” hostel being pulled down.
The building that housed the workers had been declared illegal by the local council in Gosberton, Lincolnshire, because a second storey had been added without permission by Alan Garrard, the owner. Hundreds of migrant workers gathered at the property in support of the dozens who lived there, and swiftly began building barricades at the entrance.
Workmen who tried to chainsaw their way through a makeshift blockade were met with a hail of stones, planks of wood and concrete breezeblocks.
A water hose was turned on the police as they tried to get through a barricade of wooden pallets.
Mr Garrard said that all the workers had vowed that they would “fight to the death”.
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Fifteen police officers were pelted with stones and eggs before the vicar was allowed into the hostel to try to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
Soon afterwards 27 of up to 70 of the workers who lived there, who were from Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, slowly emerged, one by one, with their possessions hastily gathered in binliners and holdalls. Council officials said that they would all be rehoused.
Workmen were then allowed in to start removing doors and windows to make the property uninhabitable before it is demolished some time this week.
Trouble began after months of fruitless negotiations with Mr Garrard by South Holland District Council, which said that alterations to the once small property represented “the worst case of breaching planning rules” that it had ever come across. Mr Garrard even built a water garden and was in the process of adding a swimming pool to the initial building when the council decided to pull it down.
Steve Williams, head of planning, said that the cost of the operation, thought to run into six figures, would be claimed back from Mr Garrard. “He has never sought planning approval for what he did,” he said. “He was told from day one that he needed permission, but he just ignored our requests.
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“We have been trying to negotiate with him but he has refused to discuss the matter. The residents have been very unhappy at what has been going on.”
Terry Huggins, the council chief executive, added: “This is the worst case of the deliberate and flagrant breaching of planning rules I have come across.
“Mr Garrard has shown no concern for the implications of his rash and unlawful actions on either the local community or the workers housed in the building. Both these groups are the victims of this one man’s unreasonable behaviour.”
Mr Garrard was one of two people arrested during the clashes outside the hostel.
He had earlier claimed that the council was using his failure to get permission to raise the building’s roof as an excuse to support a campaign of “racism”.
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He said: “All I have been doing is providing a humanitarian service. These are desperate people who have nothing else, and will fight to the death.
“I went to the council’s offices with 25 workers and asked how they would be housed. They just said they would be put on a list of 3,000 people. That’s why I have been housing and feeding these people. They are all from the European Union and have the right to be here and work.”
Norman Moore, 79, who has lived in the village all his life, said: “This is the day that everyone in Gosberton has been waiting for.
“We have all been very uptight about it — I have never known us so united. Everyone else has to get planning permission, so why shouldn’t this man?” Last night Mr Garrard was charged with a public order offence and is expected to appear before magistrates at Spalding next week.