Notice to leave has been issued to a Traveller group at Dane Valley Green in Margate and a group at the Sunken Gardens in Westbrook. Council officers are also “following the appropriate legal process” concerning a second group at Marina Esplanade car park in Ramsgate.
The group at Dane Valley arrived on July 24 and currently has some 20 caravans on site.
The second group moved on to the Ramsgate seafront car park on Monday.
A Thanet council spokesperson said: “Thanet District Council’s Community Safety Team are aware that travellers are on the land at Dane Valley Green and council officers have visited them to carry out the necessary welfare checks. As there are no welfare concerns a Section 77 Order has been issued.
“The group at the Sunken Gardens have also been issued the Section 77.
“The team are also aware of travellers on land at Marina Esplanade Car Park, Ramsgate and will be following the appropriate legal process in relation to this group too.”
An action plan is being developed by Thanet council to deal with the growing number of unauthorised Traveller encampments in the district.
A working group has been set up to investigate the issue and look at areas including Traveller accommodation, security measures and increased enforcement at high risk areas.
The news was revealed at a full council meeting on July 11 in response to a question from Dane Valley councillor Gary Taylor.
Dane Valley Green is one of the areas persistently used by Traveller groups. In 2017 a request was made by Cllr Taylor and a colleague to Thanet council for a ditch to be cut along the perimeter and the soil used to make mound, sewn with wild flowers, as a preventative measure.
However, this did not take place and encampments continued, making up a large proportion of the 55 unauthorised camps last year compared to just two in 2013.
Thanet provision of Traveller pitches
A report commissioned by Thanet council says the district should provide five Traveller pitches -to accommodate 10 caravans – in the five year period up to 2022 and then an additional two pitches – equating to four more caravans- by 2031.
The Thanet Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) was commissioned in July 2017, and carried out by consultants arc4 to identify the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople from across Thanet.
There are currently no authorised pitches in Thanet district. The nearest pitches are in Dover and Canterbury.
Friends, Families and Travellers organisation
A spokesman from the Friends, Families and Travellers organisation has previously told The Isle of Thanet News that a lack of official sites is forcing groups to pull up on public land and not enough is being done to address that issue.
They added: “It would appear that there is a need in Thanet for authorised sites to be built. 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.”
Why do we have to build sites for them?
They never follow the rules and leave refuse, live waste and garbage behindveverybtime
And these itinerant wasters will simply go up the road and camp somewhere else. Costs the tax payers a fortune every time but cost these pests absolutely nothing.
When is the law going to be changed to make it simple to remove them? Angers me!
TDC clearly loves to play “kiss chase” with the “travellers” throughout the summer months.
Where do all these “travellers” hibernate during the winter months ?
there are measures available to councils to protect public spaces in the form of injunctions. other councils have instigated thus method successfully including Canterbury….the problem lies solely in TDC’s inability or unwillingness to follow suit. Everyone should insist that their local councillors puts pressure on the executive to implement these protective nethods
The injunctions, as first implemented by Bromley in a borough-wide injunction preventing people from camping on public land in 2018, was just successfully challenged in high court several weeks ago by the gypsy & traveller campaign group. The legal costs to any council who implemented this are going to be high, including Canterbury. It is not a viable option to resolving this national problem.
Have been saying this for months since I saw Canterbury council successfully receive the court injunction to instantly evict illegal encampments on public grounds. Why the hell the Thanet Clls cannot make our council do the same I do not know as there has been more illegal encampments in Thanet than most others areas. It would make huge sense to go down that route to save on further legal and manpower costs.
ps
There are plenty of authorised caravan sites in Thanet – you just go along and pay your pitch fee for however long you want to stay . . .
Two problems with this – 1 the campsites will not accept traveller groups, and 2 the travellers will not pay or go to these sites. Just saying they should is not enough, we need revised laws for dealing with this growing issue
So if I start a second career in dishonesty drive a stolen van with cloned plates use illegal red diesel don’t pay tax national insurance council tax start to intimidate elderly peso extort money from them for services not done dump fly tipped rubbish in peoples alleyways steel their dogs and just generally abuse the law
Your council will spend money on me to put my stolen caravan on land for a while so I have somewhere to run when I get caught till the heat dies down then change my number plates and move to another free site to start over again
We need a new council to work for us instead of the mess and muddles that the present group keep making., which appear to be pretty useless
Thats worked out well the injunction served against illegal encampment at sunken gardens has only encouraged more to camp on what was alovely village green. Weird that pre local elections they were removed within 7 days post elections taking weeks and as i am emailing this arriving in numbers, is there anybody out there with backbone.
Thats worked out well the injunction served against illegal encampment at sunken gardens has only encouraged more to camp on what was alovely village green. Weird that pre local elections they were removed within 7 days post elections taking weeks and as i am emailing this arriving in numbers,