A showdown between bailiffs and residents promises tense and angry scenes as scores of families face the prospect of eviction from the UK’s biggest illegal travellers’ site.

Hundreds of residents, bolstered by supporters, have barricaded themselves inside Dale Farm in Basildon, Essex. They recently lost a decade-long legal fight over unauthorised development on the former scrapyard.

Supporters inside the site said their demand to Basildon Council is to provide 62 plots to temporarily house those made homeless while planning permission is sought for other sites. They said the council has asked for a small legal wall blocking the bailiffs’ way to be removed and for two bailiffs to be allowed to look inside the site.

Resident Kathleen McCarthy and Yvonne MacNamara, from the Irish Traveller Movement, and Joe Jones and Richard Sheridan from the Gypsy Council are due to meet council delegates outside the gate for discussions.

Speaking from a compound next to the site, the leader of Basildon Council, Tony Ball, said the travellers’ supporters had affected the clearance process. “It’s certainly put something into the operation that we could do without, there’s no doubt about that. I also question whether they all have the travellers’ best interests at heart here. I understand that although there’s 50 or 60 of them they outnumber the people on the illegal site,” he said.

Two protesters earlier chained themselves to a barrel behind the gate at Dale Farm to signal the start of peaceful resistance. Dean, 29, and Emma, 18, handcuffed themselves to a pole concreted inside the barrel as a human barricade. Lying on mattresses, the pair said they are prepared to stay as “long as it takes”.

Later, more protesters chained themselves to obstacles inside the site. One, Ruth, has attached herself to a car. She said: “There are people here from all over the world and the travellers have made us so welcome. It has become increasingly difficult for travellers to find a site in recent years. Planning law is very discretionary and we do not feel it’s being used fairly.”

Paintings of children and a banner calling for “Human rights for Dale Farm” had been attached to the outside of the main barricade. There was also a sign warning about the protesters chained to a barrel, which stated: “Danger of death. Behind this gate a woman is attached by her neck. If you attempt to open this gate you will kill her.” The travellers also built a small wall at the end of a road connecting the bailiffs’ compound with the site.

Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on travellers, said that the Dale Farm eviction should be put on hold. He said: “Simply to make people homeless and to tell them to move onto some other site, when they know full well there are no other alternative sites, is just telling people to move from one illegal situation to another.”

John Baron, Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, said: “I’m hoping for a peaceful solution to this and a peaceful site clearance. I think we are going to see a fair bit of negotiation in order to achieve that. But at the end of the day this is a site clearance. This site will be cleared but I don’t want to sacrifice moral right for speed,” he said.