Human faeces, needles and needle wrappers and piles of rubbish and discarded bedding have been festering in bushes at Ellington Park for weeks despite being reported to Environmental Health, says resident Mark Pawlowicz.
Mark, best known as Pav, says people had been living in and using drugs in the area for months, leaving just before an eviction letter was served, but the mess remains several weeks after he first reported it to Thanet council.
Ramsgate Town Council operative Maxine Morgan placed barriers around the site Friday (October 28) ahead of the park being used for family Halloween activities yesterday but, Pav says, another person pitched up their tent amid the mess on Friday night.
He said: “The bushes are next to the park keeper’s house and there have been drug users living there for a few months. They finally moved on but left behind piles of human waste, needles and rubbish. It has been closed off with plastic barriers but another person has now gone in and pitched another tent.
“It’s quite a mess and in a park used by children. The council hasn’t dealt with it. I phoned Environmental Health a few weeks ago and they listed it as urgent but it is all still there and now it is attracting rats.
“It is an unhygienic, hazardous mess in a children’s park. It’s shocking.”
A second site in Ramsgate has suffered similar problems overnight. Rubbish and used needles have been discarded at St Laurence Church graveyard.
Two council workers who were on their rounds to empty bins pitched in to clear the mess at the graveyard.
The most recent rough sleeper count recorded 11 people on the streets in Thanet and 45 people receiving assistance from the RISE homelessness team.
Thanet council receives around 1,000 homelessness applications each year.
Get advice
https://www.thanet.gov.uk/info-pages/advice-for-private-rented-tenants/
https://www.porchlight.org.uk/
Thanet council Housing Team 01843 577277
