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.”
