Thanet council says it has now requested a court date for the removal of a Traveller group at the Marina Esplanade car park in Ramsgate.
A Thanet council spokesman said: “We are aware of the traveller group at Marina Esplanade car park. Council officers have visited the site and conducted the necessary welfare checks.
“As there were no welfare concerns a Section 77 Order was issued. As the site remains occupied, officers have now requested a court date. ”
Ramsgate mayor Raushan Ara has emailed Thanet council with concerns that the encampment could cause issues for those attending the British Freestyle Kitesurfing Championships on the seafront this weekend.
She says the authority must consider implementing an authorised camp on the isle.
In her email she said: ” I have been informed by local residents that there are more illegally parked caravans in East Cliff by Ramsgate seafront. As you may be aware the International Kite Surfing and other events are taking place this weekend and parking spaces will be must.
“Due to upcoming events in Ramsgate and the fact that this is a public short use car park, the disruption caused by the travellers will be considerable.
“Tourism is one of our main forms of income and not having places to park impacts upon this. There is also the nuisance caused to residents by this group and improper disposal of rubbish.
“It is imperative that the situation be dealt with as swiftly as possible.”
Designated site
Cllr Ara added: “The”problem with the visiting travellers has been around for several years now. Complaints about littering, human waste, and the lack of accessibility to our open spaces come every year, and the council seem to do very little about it, other than just clear up the mess.
“Clearly, what is needed is a designated traveller site. One with space for their caravans, toilet and washing facilities, and waste disposal arrangements. Other councils in other areas provide somewhere, we need to do the same.”
UPDATE: A social media post from the Thanet safety Community Partnership says: “We have secured a date at court for removal of the Travellers at Marina Esplanade Car Park in Ramsgate which will take place next week.
“Due to the bank holiday and other priority cases, it was not possible to have this case heard sooner.”
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.
An update from the council’s Travellers Review sub committee is due on October 22. The Overview and Scrutiny committee meeting will take place at the council offices in Cecil Street from 7pm. Members of the public may attend.
Lack of official sites
Unauthorised camps have risen from two in 2013 to 50 last year and more than 40 this year so far.
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.
The spokesman said: “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.”
There are currently no authorised pitches in Thanet district. The nearest pitches are in Dover and Canterbury.
Seeing as the rest of Thanet is having 1000’s of houses crammed in especially Westgate and Birchington possibly Kingsgate is worth thinking of for a permanent traveller site.
This is a serious question one that keeps being asked but I haven’t a reply to yet
Why dont TDC issue parking tickets to them ?
TDC told me they had already served notice. No summer car park no beach trade. Thanks travellers thanks TDC!! I wonder if they will be so tardy collecting my beach rent?
I think it is good news for parking this weekend. It will be basically free to everyone who can fit in that car park because TDC won’t dream of asking their parking attendants to visit it all the time the travellers are there. Happy days for tourists.
No one will park as the car may not be there when they get back or its frame will be stripped.
An opportunity for the greedy Council to get some revenue back by sending the parking enforcement attendants down there and fining them all for overstaying. They don’t pay a penny for all the services they receive and they don’t really want a permanent site anywhere in Thanet. They just want to do what they do, and that is cause havoc wherever they go leaving filthy waste behind. Fly-tipping is an offence that TDC are supposed to be getting a grip on but they just pander to these lot!
Come on TDC apply to the courts for blanket bans on all public land and then they will have to move on immediately they are requested by officers and police. Why can’t the folk at TDC stop wasting finances on these court orders each time as at present. Other services are being cancelled and abandoned because there is no money so what is going on here and which pot is it all coming from?
What services do the Travellers recieve?
If I rocked up in my solitary caravan, and parked it in a Council Car Park, I am sure I would get a ticket, towed away or both, so If I bought a few friends and said we were travellers, we would not be fined or prosecuted ?
If! Not likely is it.
I grew up with knowing gypsies going to school with them I’m talking real gypsies these are not gypsies they portray to be them most are Irish tinkers hence the rubbish they leave. A proper gypsy will be honest with you give a fair price and expect one in return. They are also hard working. A few years ago now there was a hare coursing incident concerning some real gypsies in North Kent who gave the police the nod one of there own as the leaders were breaking the gypsy code. We do need a place form them a proper site with water & electric plus they will be charged for the land there on and utilities this if my memory serves was made into all councils by government about 30 years ago each area depending on size of the council TDC should provide approx 15 spaces for caravan and motor. I will be honest I don’t want it to happen as the one’s who are around thanet now are not all desirable but we have neighbours we don’t like so we can’t pick and choose. We need to put in to action now not in months or years but now as we have this year alone as a council thousands of our tax just to make them move from a to b then to c & back to a and so on the tinkers don’t care about moving a mile away once or twice a month when they still have the free and easy pickings around here.
When we had travellers long term on a site we supplied them with skips and toilets,they smashed the toilets with a jcb and left the skips empty after a two month stay.
There is an element in this crowd who would do that for sure easy to pick out to the gobbie ones.
Mate your ignorance is as big..probably the only big thing about you. Can you explain what a ‘real’ Gypsy is?
Leave them alone
They moving in to run the council
As we been robbed for years by all admins
They probably do a better job
Council use a parking enforcement company to collect money.. Goes to KCC
Travellers stay put.. Council can be fined for everything people
Rebecca lol I like the logic and at least the pot holes will be filled in.
Sandra, less than helpful and not at all constructive, why would you simply want to pass an issue into your neighbours
Sandra, less than helpful and not at all constructive, why would you simply want to pass an issue on to your neighbours
Good idea Sandra, there’s just the right place for our lovely travellor friends…outside our council leaders house in Kingsgate Avenue. He keeps telling his neighbours there and in Botany Rd that this is the price we pay for living by the sea. What a fool this man is, yet still he gets voted in. At a recent meeting about the problems with diabolical parking he was as much use a chocolate fire guard, TDC, who can come up with a suitable pneumonic for this rabble. How about Terribly Disinterested Clots. Any offers, come on it’s the weekend and we’ve got the nutter Boris to face up to in the near future. God help us all.
Why can’t people just leave them alone and let them get on with there life and other people should just get on with there life why can’t people just leave them alone for once
No problem at all,so long as they pay for the space they occupied, or council tax, leave no rubbish, don’t intimidate locals that go near their encampments, don’t cause any damage etc.
Basically live like a decent productive member of society wherever they choose to live. In which case yes live and let live.
Council tax? You do obviously don’t know how council tax is calculated.. Suggesting you don’t pay it yourself.
Why should tax payers pay for travelers to have a site when they choose to live like they do so don’t have to pay what everyone else does!! Maybe they should get proper jobs and houses and pay like everyone else!!
Travellers are statutorily considered homeless. Councils have an obligation to accommodate homeless people. Not to hard to understand is it. Everyone pays tax in some form.
TDC has no money to provide the services that we pay our council tax for. Our kerbs are dirty and full of weeds, our toilets have been closed. There is no housing for our youngsters to afford and the travellers are getting away with blue murder. They are worse than animals leaving everywhere they go with piles of their rubbish, fly tipping and to even admit that they don’t use their own loos is just disgusting. TDC spends thousands on court fees. This has to stop. They are on our public land, we wouldn’t be allowed to stop our rates. Make them pay, clear up, take their poo with them and leave Thanet. Go to Essex, loads of places to park up.
“TDC has no money” is always their excuse. There was “no money” for creating new jobs for the (indigenous!) unemployed for decades, yet the money was suddenly there when we were inundated by ‘refugees’ as they call themselves, and they, not us, have jobs.
They have a right to live here. If that bothers you you could always relocate to Essex.
Jenny have you been inside some of those caravans have toilet fit for a queen they are like a Palace on wheels and then there’s the rest like social housing I would bet our TDC leader couldn’t afford one even with his questionable money.
Of course their toilets in their caravans are fit for a queen…they never use them! And TDC’s chief executive is a she, not a he. Madeline Homer in case anyone wants to write to her
True! They seem to be beyond the law for some reason
Expand on your claim if you will/can
People keep on going on about getting these ‘travellers’out of thanet well it’s really is simple. People of thanet STOP GIVING THEM WORK, once the work has dried up they move to another area. So I am guessing lots of people of thanet are happy to have them parking in our parks or in our car parks all free of charge because people of thanet can get their paving cleaned on the cheap or a new drive on the cheap or a new garden on the cheap. Thanet people like getting things on the cheap so the ‘travellers’ are doing a service for the people of thanet. The travellers are only here because they can make good money.
Not so..some of the families have been orbiting Thanet for generations. The places the usually ‘hide’ in are being built on right across Kent. Sites are what’s needed
Hi to all of the regular posters here,please keep up the comments on all issues.Thanet deserves to be respected and not considered a dumping ground by anyone including politicians.
back to topic,Travellers hey love them or loath them but they have their ways and we have our own.conflict will occur but that’s a known fact.
our current government did made progress with a legal bill to curtail travellers and their associated so called conflict or problems.
Please contact your elected, yes the people who you voted for to implement the government bill’s to speed up this idea https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-plans-to-tackle-illegal-traveller-sites
the uk home sectary has changed since but still worthwhile offering some educated pressure .
raise your voices to your elected persons,they are responsible to the people who voted for them.
Thanet needs a permanent traveller site for visiting travellers,hey its fairly common practice in the Uk.
Carrot & stick approach.
I am not a politico,Just a resided of 3 years and I really love it here but the elected persons need to remove their fingers from (you know where).
Bye all. PP
Do you really think the travellers will use a site were they have to pay ???
Why dont the travellers use the site at Canterbury than travel the short distance to thanet to ‘work’
I think we know the answer!!
The site in Canterbury has a long waiting list. People can’t just go onto it. The KCC would remove them
11 caravans are now back on Dane Valley Woods, something as got to be done we are sick and tired over them plus call the mess they leave behind and it’s as the tax payers that have to fork out for it to be cleaned up through our council bill.
Yawn. Whistle a new tune will you.