A campaigner has criticised local authorities in Kent for not meeting the accommodation needs of the Travelling community.

Gypsy Council director Joseph Jones says district and borough councils must do more to provide permanent sites.

Last year, legislation was introduced allowing local authorities to evict, fine or arrest travellers setting up unauthorised encampments.

But Mr Jones says councils should have created more sites before these laws were introduced.

“A lot of these councils have failed in provision – we need more sites, that’s a guaranteed fact,” he said.

According to government guidelines, local authorities are encouraged to: “Formulate their own evidence base for Gypsy and Traveller needs, provide their own targets relating to pitches required, and identify a suitable five-year supply to meet those needs.”

KentOnline approached councils across the county and most said they had either met or exceeded the target number of pitches they had set.

Satinder Shokar (Lab), a Medway councillor representing Strood West, says the numbers between these objectives and official caravan counts do not add up.

If councils are under setting their targets, could this explain why it is claimed Kent has a major traveller pitch shortage?

Maidstone council has a total of 273 private pitches and a further 32 it provides across the two sites it owns.

This exceeds its goal of providing 187 pitches for the period 2011 to 2031.

But in the count conducted in January this year in Maidstone, there were 725 caravans on authorised pitches – which includes those that are privately owned – and 152 on unauthorised pitches.

Regarding Medway, Cllr Shokar said: “Unfortunately under the previous administration, they had the report of how many pitches they needed in Medway but in their local [development] plan they didn’t even include that.

“The local plan didn’t even end up happening, but at that consultation stage they didn’t take on the professional advice to provide those pitches.”

Maidstone, which has the highest Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) population in Kent, recently published its new local plan for 2023 to 2040.

The council found a need for an additional 340 pitches, which could suggest it is addressing the needs of the community.

But, underneath this data, the council says these figures “are not necessarily a need for pitches on additional sites” because of the “natural turnover of pitches over time”.

Opinion Research Services (ORS) is a professional body that conducts Gypsy and Traveller accommodation assessments across the country.

In the study conducted for Maidstone, it notes: “Some assessments of need make use of pitch turnover as an ongoing component of supply.

“ORS do not agree with this approach or about making any assumptions about annual turnover rates.

“This approach frequently ends up significantly under-estimating need as, in the majority of cases, vacant pitches on sites are not available to meet any local need.”

Meanwhile, some local authorities, such as Swale, do not have a council-owned site.

The borough had the second-highest GRT population, with 350 caravans counted in the new year, but its only public site is owned by Kent County Council.

Mr Jones said: “There were 30-odd families living on church marshes [in Sittingbourne] and when that was shut down they asked people to go in temporary housing until they built a new site.

“That never developed and that still hasn’t developed.

“That’s what the problem is – the local borough councils are avoiding it like the plague.”

The Local Government Association was asked for a comment on Kent's situation but it failed to respond.

In general, it advises councils to involve Gypsies and Travellers in the planning process; consult with GRT communities early and often; be transparent to build trust; and integrate GRT accommodation needs into new planning systems.

It adds: "Moving Gypsies and Travellers on from one district to another doesn't solve the overall problem of a lack of sites."