In a careful strategy, land is often acquired and a village created in a matter of days

For Malcolm Buckley it was a moment of poetic justice. As caravans, cars and mechanical diggers sprang up overnight near the £1m country home of Tessa Jowell's estranged husband, David Mills, Buckley watched the news of this illegal encampment with a keen eye.

'I thought: "At last, now it's happening to a minister - perhaps the government will do something,"' said the Basildon council leader. 'They've ignored our calls for help for long enough. We've had this for seven years now, and it's still going on.'

Buckley is referring to Dale Farm, which is populated by more than 1,000 Irish travellers. Part of the camp, the UK's largest, is legal, but a battle is still going on to evict 86 families from it. They bought greenbelt land at Dale Farm, a former scrapyard in the Essex village of Cray's Hill. Then they moved on to it without planning permission in 2001. A High Court judgment is expected over attempts to evict the families, although they have pledged to take the case to Strasbourg if it goes against them.

Similar scenarios are being played out across the English countryside. However, it has taken the name of Jowell to bring media attention to the Shipston-on-Stour encampment in Warwickshire. In each case the modus operandi is the same. Groups of Romany gypsies or Irish travellers secretly buy greenfield land at auction. They remain the anonymous owners for several months. Then, in a deftly co-ordinated manoeuvre , the 'land grab' begins.

Planning applications are lodged just before end of play on a Friday - or even better just before the beginning of a Bank Holiday - with little chance of anyone noticing. Then, as dusk falls, the cars and caravans move onto the land. The lorries and diggers follow. Hedgerows are dug up and fences are erected. Hardcore is delivered and access roads created. Water pipes and electricity cables are laid and supplies connected. By the time the council officials arrive on Monday, waving their 'stop notices', the job is done. A mini-village has been created with remarkable speed. As Mills described his own new neighbours' endeavours: 'They've done a hell of a lot in a short time.'

This technique was used at North Curry, near Taunton, Somerset, where land was bought from a farming couple who thought it was for keeping a horse. Sixteen families moved in on a Friday evening in April 2004, although several have now moved on. There have been two planning inquiries, with the second ending last week.

Helping the gypsies is Maggie Smith-Bendell, 67, a Romany grandmother-of-five and for the last decade known as the 'grandmother of the land grab'. Self-educated in law - 'no qualifications, just my mouth and believing in my people' - she has helped hundreds of Romany gypsies fight their planning applications across the south of England. Indeed, much of her wisdom - born from fighting her own eviction case 11 years ago - is contained in the detailed supplement produced by the magazine Travellers' Times which tells travellers how to go about legally applying for planning permission. It is available online.

Two years ago she firmly advocated land-grab. The reasoning is simple. Under the 1968 Caravan Sites Act, local authorities had to produce dedicated pitches for travellers. That was repealed by the Tories in 1994 and travellers were encouraged to provide for themselves. They were told they would have their status as gypsies taken into account when applying for planning permission, but up to 90 per cent of their cases were rejected and two-thirds of their appeals. That left them little alternative, they say, but to move on first, apply later and then slog it out in the planning inquiries and courtrooms for as long as they could - thus providing their children with schooling and access to doctors.

'Look at the figures,' said Chris Whitwell, director of the charity Friends, Families and Travellers, which campaigns to end racism against gypsies. 'The estimated shortfall in legal pitches is 4,000. That translates into 20-25,000 people who don't have anywhere they can go to be legal. There is a desperate shortage. Local authorities push them over the borders into neighbouring authorities. It's a national disgrace.'

Smith-Bendell, in her role as liaison officer for the Romany Gypsy Council, has noticed a softening in the approach by some councils. Today she would not be advocating the approach by the 16 families at Shipston-on-Stour. 'That was me a couple of years ago. I've changed my mind now, because we are seeing better relationships with councils. But they are there now, and they will have to stay there. It's a secure place for their children. They will have to sit it out and do the best they can.'