Former councillor Ian Driver has been charged with seven counts of criminal damage and will appear in court tomorrow (July 1).
Mr Driver was arrested this morning (June 30) as police carried out an investigation in relation to a series of anti-racism graffiti tags sprayed in Broadstairs and Ramsgate.
The Broadstairs resident is accused of spraying graffiti on Broadstairs and St Peter’s Town Council offices at Pierremont Hall, the office of the Broadstairs Folk Week, the Thanet council owned Dickens Museum, the box protecting the controversial Uncle Mack memorial plaque and two street signs in Broadstairs and Ramsgate.
The father-of-three published a blog yesterday to say the act was in response to a Town Council recommendation to retain the Uncle Mack memorial despite issues of black facing racism and, Mr Driver says, Thanet council’s “woefully inadequate review of its publicly funded racist properties and activities.”
A Kent Police spokesperson said: “Ian Driver, 63, of Sea View Road, Broadstairs, has been charged with seven counts of criminal damage relating to an alleged offence in Broadstairs on Saturday 13 June and six in Broadstairs and Ramsgate on Saturday 27 June.”
He is due to appear virtually before Medway magistrates in the morning.