Court delays are holding up an application to remove an illegal traveller camp in Ramsgate.

Officers from Thanet District Council are trying to force the group to leave the site in Westcliff but are facing difficulty in securing a hearing due to a backlog of cases.

The group arrived there last week and aerial photographs show the extent of the camp and rubbish strewn around the cliffs allegedly dumped by them.

They have been accused of trashing the area with gas bottles, toys and human waste left lying around.

A tweet posted by the Thanet Community Safety Partnership (TCSP) - the branch of the council responsible for dealing with traveller incursions - says the authority is waiting for a court date to hear their application.

The council has issued multiple section 77 notices on the group ordering them to move but have so far been ignored.

The order means the travellers have to move on and can face prosecution if it is ignored.

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.

The TCSP tweet says: "Following the issue of a further Section 77 notice on the additional travellers currently at the Chine in Ramsgate, an application to court was submitted.

"Due to very busy court schedules, we are still awaiting a confirmed hearing date."

Residents posting on social media say the group are driving up and down the Westcliff Promenade and a couple of residents are volunteering to clean up mess left along the Western Undercliff.

It is not confirmed whether the travellers are the same group which pitched up at Dreamland car park in Margate, Marine Esplanade in Ramsgate and Dane Valley in Margate over the past three months.

Angry neighbours have branded the issues as "a merry-go-round" with no permanent place for travellers to go to.

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Calls to review a decision taken six years ago not to allocate a permanent traveller site were made by Margate councillor Iris Johnston (Lab) urging TDC's chief executive to look again.

Cllr Lesley Game, TDC's cabinet member for safe communities, says the council is looking for ways to address issues in the long term.

Speaking last month, Cllr Game said: "We totally understand the frustration that residents have expressed and while we are obliged to follow due legal process, it is clear that if a group can simply relocate a few miles away for the cycle to begin again, it is not a workable solution.

"We are looking at ways that we can address this in the longer term."

She adds she is frustrated with the council having to spend its "limited resources" and promised to use the available powers it has to pursue enforcement action for anyone who commits criminal offences like fly tipping.

Travellers can also be prosecuted if they return to the same piece of land within three months of a section 77 order being issued.

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