Basildon Council has offered to house 11 traveller families facing eviction from illegal sites at Crays Hill and Wickford.

The council is still considering a further 19 homelessness applications from families at the controversial Dale Farm and Hovefields camps.

The figures were released to the Echo following a Freedom of Information request.

The council has so far only turned down applications from six families, on the grounds they had made themselves intentionally homeless by moving to illegal plots at Dale Farm or Hovefields after voluntarily leaving council housing or official sites elsewhere.

This means, when they are evicted, the families will be left homeless.

A total of 38 families from both sites have so far made homelessness applications. Two families from Dale Farm later withdrew them.

The decisions have already triggered another round of legal clashes between travellers and the council.

Three of the families offered traditional housing have appealed, saying they need an alternative caravan pitch, because of an aversion to bricks-and-mortar accommodation.

These include John and Barbara Sheridan, sister of Dale Farm spokesman Richard Sheridan.

Although Mrs Sheridan was listed on the electoral roll for an ex-council property in Wolverhampton, owned by her father, between 2001 and 2002, she argues she cannot return to conventional housing.

Grattan Puxon, a campaigner for Dale Farm, said: “We expect John Sheridan’s case to be the first to go up against the council at Basildon County Court. Papers are being prepared.”

There is case law where county courts have ordered councils elsewhere to find homeless travellers caravan pitches as opposed to homes.