GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Council officers have ordered a group of travellers to leave after yet another illegal camp was set up in Thanet.
The group moved on to land on the Westcliff in Ramsgate prompting a visit from community officers earlier today.
The Thanet District Council Community Safety Team carried out the legally required welfare checks to assess if they can be told to move from the Government Acre land.
A spokesman for the council confirmed no welfare concerns were in place and a section 77 order was issued.
Section 77 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 gives the council authority to order people living in vehicles to move off public land, a highway, unoccupied land or land where there is no permission for them to stay.
Travellers can be prosecuted if they return to the same piece of land within three months of a section 77 order being issued.
It is the latest after dozens of illegal encampments in the district this year.
Residents have been left angered by the state of land left when groups leave with rubbish and rubble left stacked up.
Notably, the council promised a crackdown on illegal tipping by travellers after around 12 caravans and other vehicles were parked up for weeks in Dreamland car park in early 2019.
The group infamously moved across Thanet to The Esplanade in Ramsgate less than an hour after being booted out of the car park.
Since the Dreamland camp was broken up, groups have been rotating sites around the district leading residents to brand the fiasco a "merry-go-round".
Sites targeted by the group include part of The Chine in Westcliff, Dane Valley in Margate and The Esplanade on Ramsgate seafront.
In plans published in March, the Thanet Gypsy and Traveller and Travelling Showperson Accommodation Assessment report revealed needs to provide 15 new pitches for the travelling community in the district.
The document says six pitches are needed in the next five years with a further four by 2031 which includes seven cultural sites and three under planning policy guidelines.
The document also recommends providing a five pitch site for up to 10 caravans by developing a "transit site or temporary stopping place" in the wake of "increasing levels of unauthorised encampment activity".
