One resident warned that locals are sitting on a “ticking time-bomb” as the “overcrowded” site continues to grow.
The traveller site has rapidly expanded since it was granted planning permission almost 50 years ago (Image: PA)
Asylum seekers have sparked local fury by moving into a sprawling traveller site in Essex, thought to accommodate 1,500 people. Buckles Lane in South Ockendon was approved as a base for just 50 caravans in 1980, but has since ballooned to hundreds of static homes, reportedly occupied by migrants and criminals. Nearby residents have urged Thurrock Council to crack down on the site, which is secured by metal gates, guard dogs, surveillance cameras and signage discouraging intruders.
Kathleen Judge, 77, told The Sun: “We are sitting on a ticking time-bomb here. Overcrowding has become a major problem and that worries me because a lack of sanitation spreads diseases.” She added that while the majority of migrants didn’t pose a threat to social cohesion, “if one in 100 comes for devious reasons, then that’s one too many”.
Armed police discovered firearms and explosives in a mobile home during a raid in 2024 (Image: PA)
Alongside asylum seekers, some of the caravans are thought to house organised criminals, including individuals linked to county-lines drug operations and Romanian prostitution networks.
Armed officers discovered firearms and explosives in one mobile home during a raid in November 2024, belonging to a lorry driver who had been converting blank-firing weapons into guns and stockpiling gunpowder for a “race war”.
Thomas McKenna was jailed for 16 years in February for distributing weapons to a criminal network, and Craig Phillips, another resident at the site, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in 2022 for Class A drug conspiracy.
Advertisements on local property websites showed how caravan owners have taken advantage of a demand for cheap accommodation, especially among low-paid migrants working shift patterns.
An anonymous whistleblower said the cost of shared board at the traveller site averaged £320 per month, paid fortnightly in cash.
“The site has grown and grown and has been illegally expanded several times,” they added.
The Express has contacted Thurrock Council for comment