A Traveller community evicted from the Chine on Ramsgate’s Westcliff today (April 3) have set up site just over a mile away at the East Cliff.
Bailiffs carried out the enforced removal this morning.
The group has been at the Westcliff since March 14 and are believed to be part of a group who had been moved on from the Sunken Gardens in Westbrook. Prior to that the group was at Dane Valley Green after being moved from the Marina Esplanade car park in Ramsgate.
A court order was served last month but was ignored.
Police had blocked the road to the Marina Esplanade car park and the barrier at the council-owned car park by Dreamland was also put in place ahead of the eviction. But members of the group have now stopped up alongside the Granville cinema in Victoria Parade.
A Thanet council spokesperson said earlier today: “Thanet District Council submitted an application for removal to the Court for the traveller group based at The Chine in Ramsgate in March. The order was granted however, the group did not move on, prompting officers to engage bailiffs to facilitate removal. This took place today.”
An update on how the authority will proceed now has been requested.
Thanet currently does not have an authorised site with the nearest being in Aylesham and Dover.
The Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) group say there is a national shortage of Gypsy and Traveller sites and available stopping places in the UK. The group’s research shows there has been only been a 2% increase in socially rented pitches available between 2010 and 2017.
An FFT spokesman previously told The Isle of Thanet News that sites should be made available, saying: “We would recommend that the district council and local authority work with the Traveller community in the area to identify land that would be suitable for building new sites to accommodate these residents.”
They should go to wayside caravan park in Minster
I understand that a so.called traveler has purchased the site.
When is this stupid loophole in the law going to be filled. These itinerants knew exactly where they were going to go and under our out of date laws nobody could stop them, certainly not the police. Madness, expensive for us tax payers and an absolute eye-sore. They are not responsible travellers, they are criminals who leave their crap (literally) and detritus everywhere they go and live off fleecing the public for poorly executed work, as well as what they can ‘find’. lying around. Now the residents of East Cliff have to make sure their doors are locked and put up with an eye-sore outside their houses. GET RID, they are not wanted.
San Clu hotel watch out!
if i parked my car on the area where they have now parked, the police would be there in minutes to tell me to move so why can’t they do the same to the so called travelers, they do what they want knowing the police won’t touch them. we should all park on pedestrian areas when there are no parking spaces, then DEMAND that the council supply more parking areas.
The police won’t take any action against your (or anyone else’s) parking infringements on public land because responsibility lies with the local authority.
And they cannot simply drive bulldozers through the travellors’ vehicles. There are proper procedures that have to be followed.
But there must be some legal means of thwarting this merrygoround of travellors being moved from one illegal occupancy just to turn up half an hour later half a mile away.
Why are the travellers not being fined for illegal parking, trespass and littering ? If the council and landowners legally confiscated their cars or caravans for non payment and cleanup costs they would soon leave the area.
I’m pretty sure that if I was to park up illegally and use the streets as a dumping ground I would be prosecuted, why the double standards?
I thought the eviction covered a 3 mile area as well as a 3 month period, if not then that should be applied for from the court so they cannot just stop somewhere else like this. They should have continued with the eviction where they stopped until they were out of Thanet. These people know what they are up to, deliberately taking the mick out of the system and costing the authority a packet.
Please tell us how much it costs each time an eviction and clear-up takes place.
Several people (on social media) are making a case for KCC/TDC to provide a permanent site for “travellors “.
I have difficulty with this. On the one hand, I’m happy to support homeless charities such as Thanet Winter Shelter, but I don’t feel that it’s right to support the travellors.
Would someone explain why public money should be spent on a specific group of people who have made a choice to adopt the life style they live?
They are not wanted.they are criminals who live off taxpayers money.Evict them out of Thanet We don’t want them here.
Are you talking about travellers or politicians?
Who left the gate near the Granville cinema open ? The lock was not broken on Wednesday 3rd. How about the Police follow them when they are moved on from Eastcliff ? Probably best to get CCTV in the area which may also discourage vandalism of the endlessly renovated cliff-top shelters.
Traveller update. As of 17:08 14th April they are moving to the Eastern Undercliff carpark in Ramsgate.