Thanet council officers will make welfare checks at an unauthorised Traveller encampment on Dane Valley Green today (August 10).
Around 40 vehicles, including diggers and quad bikes, are now on the green following the arrival of an initial five on Friday evening.
A Thanet council spokesperson said: “We are aware of an unauthorised encampment in Dane Valley Green.
“The council’s Community Safety Team is visiting the group this afternoon (Monday 10 August) to carry out welfare checks.
“The Government has set out guidance which states that local authorities should not evict encampments during the pandemic. This has been extended until the end of August 2020.”
Police officers are currently on site.
Dane Valley ward councillor Gary Taylor says he reported the incursion on Friday.
He added: “I have also asked again for some automatic raising bollards by the accesses to the green. This would mean emergency services could still have access whe needed. We would also wanted measures like those put in at Jackey Bakers.
“We are now waiting for Cabinet to decided on where they are going to use for the temporary site.”
Thanet currently does not have an authorised Traveller site, with the nearest being in Canterbury and Dover.
Unauthorised encampments at sites including Dane Valley, Marina Esplanade, Government Acre and the car park by Dreamland have risen sharply from two in 2013 to more than 55 last year.
There have been 40 unauthorised encampments this year. Two were negotiated stops due to COVID-19 and a number were single day stopovers.
In December approval was given for further work to assess Potten Street in St Nicholas-at-Wade, Tivoli Brook in Margate and Ramsgate Port for use as temporary tolerated stopping sites.
Both Ramsgate Port and Tivoli Brook were then removed from the plans and land off Shottendane Road was added.
Tivoli Brook was removed due to “the potential commercial development and the opportunity it creates for income generation and employment,” while Ramsgate Port was scrapped from the proposals because it is “presently undergoing a feasibility study and the proposed area is in use for the storage of cars and is returning a revenue, it is also an industrialised area and not suited to families and young children.”
The aim is to use the sites on a rotation basis to alleviate the issue of unauthorised camps on the isle.
Cabinet members had been expected to discuss the use of Potten Street and council-owned land off Shottendane at a meeting last month but due to some incorrect paperwork the item was postponed until the next meeting, expected to be this month.
Temporary tolerated pitches are when unauthorised encampments stay for an agreed amount of time. The council says this means smoother enforcement is easier on those unauthorised encampments which chose to ignore the direction and stay on other land.
A temporary tolerated site also allows easier management of amenities such as waste collection and toilet provision, reducing the impact on the local area.
Thanet council need to put 2 ton concrete flower pots 4 ft in diameter 3ft part all along the open spaces in Thanet that these imposters think they can just camp on, that should stop them.The flower pots with nice flowers in them of course would look very nice and lift the area. It’s been done in other places. There are people man / women sleeping in an old tent in millennium Way Broadstairs and others sleeping in a van. Not top of the range caravans like the Gypsies, are THANET council officers going to do a welfare check on them as well or don’t their lives matter.
“Imposters” what you mean they ae not really there?
What do you think should be done for the people livng in a tent and a van…should they be restricted from doing so?
If not; why have you decided some people should be restricted from camping up, while others shouldnt or should we come to the obvious conclusion about your diffiating?
This is a great idea, a welfare check, making sure they have access to doctors and dentists. Homeless people back down the list again.
I assume the council officers will be placing a skip nearby, for them to place their rubbish. How much will the council be charging these people to stay on the land? They could collect the rent, at the same time as the police are checking all vehicles are road legal, and also issuing fines for parking on the grass.
How on earth have you come to the conclusion doing welfare checks on one set of people means other sets of people are affected and waiting lists for doctors and dentists are also affected?
Where did you get this idea? Any basis for it?
If the council charge rent does that not suggest they give permission for the people to be there?
Should the police check every vehicle parked on grass or just these peoples vehicles.
Did you consider your post contents before you posted it?
It does seem rather scatty.
Red John
I don’t need to consider the content on these people, they are outright criminals, they abide by no rules or laws.
If I parked on the grass, I would be arrested, but not these people, why do you think they are disliked?
Using health care services, of course it pushes other people down the list.
Hey, I hope you are on the standby list, ready to volunteer and clear the rubbish after they have gone.
Of course they should be charged rent, enough services have to attend, during and after they have gone.
The easiest conclusion is if they just clear off, the sooner the better, then you can get to work on their rubbish.
Your post is hystefical and quite cleqrly based on racism.
You do not know who these people are and it is you who is acting in what might be considered a criminal way!
How on eqrth do you know you would be arrested for pqrking on grass…is there even a law against paeking on grass?
Do you know?
Please show evidence how anyone having access to a doctor or dentist (nothing to say these people will be in the area to need that) puahes other people ‘down the list’ What list?
What ‘standby list’? Are you dealing with reality as you post your weird and unsubstantiated ‘facts’
You do realise by charging rent the council would be implying the people have permission to be there. And could be there again if they pay rent..rent payment also suggest a form or contract! Again methinks you prhaps ned to take a reality check.
Why should they clear off? They have as much rit to be here as you do…have you thought abut clearing off…im sure many like me would be happy if you did…now bend a knee and try not let others peoples circumstances bother you too much.
Red John
Go and park your vehicle on the grass near them, let us all know if it is illegal.
I suspect you would probably return to find your vehicle stripped down. Oh, I wonder who would do a thing like that, not the travellers, surely.
so if i break the law will you find me temporary living space so i can then go around thieving from shops and breaking the law again? didn’t think so, so why can they? why are you even negotiating in the first place by trying to accommodate them
What law have they broken by being on the green…you do know dont you…I mean you wouldnt post ignorance as fact would you?
Racial Stereotyping is a form of racism…you will be ignorant of that too no doubt
Red John, why don’t you go and camp with them, perhaps you could advise them on where to put their rubbish, and also what local amenities are worth robbing.
Your user name sums you up much more than I ever could and would seem very appropriate
We will await photos of you volunteering, to help clear the rubbish, after they have left. I’m sure that many people will be proud to see you tidying after these criminals have left.
Great thats all we need more Coronavirus cases in Thanet.
Have these people got the virus?
Do you know?
If not why are you making a false claim?
ARe you trying to spread false news or denigrate this ethnic minority group?
You are sailing close to the wind of committing a crimminal offense
Quad bikes churning up the grass as they speed all around enjoying themselves then pooing in the bushes.
How come the lockdown and shielding is over for elderly and disabled with medical issues but not for the travellers without medical issues, so they can keep moving around from illegal site to site but not be asked to move on by TDC? That doesn’t make sense. They should be moved off that land ASAP. How did they get on it after the barrier of trees planted earlier in the year? Surely a gate was added with a lock on!
The issue of travellers just goes on and on in Thanet. Send them to Canterbury where the free site is for them.
BTW: Those trees in your image don’t look very healthy, some look like they haven’t been watered since being planted.
You are a notable poster of everything anti Traveller and therefore anti ethnic minority n this case.
Have they done any of which you accuse them of?
How do you these people dont have medical conditions? Are yoh a doctor or perhaps a pychic..or just a plain common garden racist!
Are any of these camps illegal? Do you know?
If the are not why do you sggest they are?
Do you even understand the definition of illegal?
You belittle yourself with your lack of understanding of the issues you constantly post on.
This is ridiculous, the vans are now parked along the front of the green as well as all over. This is about 70 yards from the residents who do have to pay their council tax to provide their in waste removal and who obviously now pay for the rubbish and fouling that these gypsies leave. They are not acting in a decent manner, they don’t care about the muck they leave. And yes they terrorise because the authorities are frightened to move them on.
They are parked on public land…if they were only parked at the back you would probably still be bleating on about them.
Does council tax pay for any clean up after an unauthorised camp?
Do you know?
If not why are you posting your ignorance up as fact?
There is a budget for removal of rubbish be it in the park or 10s of tonnes of it from the beach…do you go on threads about the rubbish on the beaches left by locals and tourists and ask the same questions?
If not why not?
Red John the ridiculous, posts again. You talk so much rubbish. Wait until your friends leave, then you’ll know the meaning of rubbish.
Get your rubbish bags, and your Marigolds ready.
You mean like the rubbish the beach throws up every weekend?
You need to get yourself down there to shift some of it.
Red John again and his group of travelling friends.
If they are travellers, why don’t you ask your mates why they have stopped, why aren’t they travelling.
Where are your friends going next? What decent respectable area, can expect these criminals on their land next? Perhaps you could get there before them, and crap all over the place, make them feel at home.
Cunning stunt with the correct name, picked by himself it would seem.
You will be ignorant to the fact the epithet (look this word up) for these pople is given by society and so cannot be expected to be obligatory…if they had been called cartwheelers, would you have expected them to continuously cartwheel?
The tonnes of rubbish and human waste on Thanet beaches. Which you have ignored… When are you going to deal with it?
When are you going to get your hi-viz ves on and you shovel ad get cracking?
Going to be a scorcher this weekend… ‘Phew’ as your preferred newpaper the Sun would say…so come on lets have you out shoveling for all your worth, appropriately enough, instead of bleating on here about Travellers because you can no longer racially abuse black people.
By the way…Thanet is becoming more multi-cultural! Decent minded people loving it. Are you thinking of moving?
What are you on about, no longer racially abusing black people?
Please point out in any of my comments, where I have mentioned anything about racism, or black people. It would appear that when you run out of excuses you have to make things up.
All that concerns me, is that these villains who call themselves travellers, clear off, ASAP. Then you can begin the usual clean up operation behind them.
This has nothing to do with beach cleaning.
I do hate trying to communicate with incompetent, less intelligent people.
By the way, your newspaper the “Sun” is designed to be read by an eight year old, be sure to reserve your copy.
At last I agree with Red John. It is disgusting the amount of Rubbish left on our beaches, by about 5 to 7 thousand people, and more of them should be fined, for their filthy behaviour. But I fail to see what it has to do with 5 or 6 families staying on Public ground in caravans leaving their rubbish when they chose to leave . Do you not agree they should also be fined? Or are going to say they do leave rubbish when they leave, or use the bushes as toilets?
Pooing at the (clearly labeled) children’s centre. Disgusting.
Stupid stunt..your stereotypical comments on people you dont know is clear racism..racists dont just pick one communty to victimise and denigrate…you know you cant get away, any longer, abusing black people,so you go for the only ethnic minority left to voice your depraved hate..
You are complaining about what might/could be a little bit of rubbish compared to the tonnes of rubbish on the beaches DAILY!
It is broached that all racists are pychologially flawed….your user name, bestowed by yourself, seems to bear that out?
You will be a Daily mail reader as well as the Sun…no doubt