Garlinge Gypsy & Traveller Site: Labour & Green’s Shameful Shenanigans Exposed.

In October 2024 Thanet District Council (TDC) launched a public consultation  on its  proposal to build a gypsy and travellers site on council owned farm land between Shottendane Road and Caxton Road, in Garlinge. The consultation ended on 17 December 2024.

Almost a year later and TDC has not made public the result of the consultation. I wonder why?

According to my sources responses to the consultation, of which there were many, were overwhelmingly opposed to the proposal. Yet despite the clear wishes of the public council leader, Rick Everitt and  his lickspittle cabinet colleagues, supported by Green Party councillors,  secretly decided to force the site on the people of Garlinge  whether they like it or not.

To get away with this outrageously anti-democratic action and avoid damaging the election prospects of the Labour and Green parties, Everitt and his chums decided to delay publishing the results of the consultation exercise  until after May’s  Kent County Council elections.

With the KCC  election out of the  way  a TDC document shows that it  was planned to make public the results of the consultation,  and presumably the decision to go ahead with the proposed site in Garlinge, at a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet on October 16^th.  

But with less than a week to go the meeting was mysteriously cancelled by TDC’s Labour Leader Everitt on the dishonest grounds that the there was no business to discuss.

TDC Committee 

From:committee@thanet.gov.uk

To:Ian Driver

Thu 9 Oct at 12:00

Dear Mr Driver

The Cabinet meeting was cancelled as requested by the Leader, due to lack of business. There was no agreed agenda at the time of cancellation of the October Cabinet meeting. The next scheduled meeting is on 27 November 2025.

Might the real reason for cancelling  the meeting be something to do with the fact that the  unexpected  resignation of Garlinge councillor John Worrow  had led to a by-election being called in the  ward on 30 October?

If the meeting had gone ahead as planned then Everett’s sneaky plot  to force the the  gypsy and travellers site on Garlinge would have been publicly exposed which would have had catastrophic consequences for the Labour and Green election candidates standing in  Garlinge.

There is no doubt in my mind that  the yearlong delay in making public the result of the consultation exercise was to secure political advantage for Labour and Greens. Not only is this an undemocratic abuse of power, but a slap in the face to the people of Garlinge.

I fully support the longstanding need to have a gypsy and travelers site in Thanet. In fact there is probably a need for more than one site because  TDCs proposal for  a 12 pitch site at Garlinge  is based on a 6 year old needs assessment which, even back then, underestimated the actual need.

That being said the site, or sites,  should not be located on farmland. This land should be protected from any sort of non-agricultural development including housing, offices, shops, solar farms, roads etc.

The Government publication  “Planning policy for traveller sites” says that “Local planning authorities should very strictly limit new traveller site development in open countryside” and prioritise the “effective use of previously developed (brownfield) untidy or derelict land” for gypsy and  traveller sites.

By locating the proposed site on grade 1 agricultural land Everitt and his cronies  have deliberately, and possibly unlawfully,  ignored  the Government’s  guidance.

If I am elected to represent the people of Garlinge at TDC I will fight to have  plans  to locate a gypsy and travellers site in Garlinge withdrawn and for the council to undertake a search for more suitable sites in line with the Government’s  Planning policy for traveller sites.

I will also insist on the identification of several suitable sites spread fairly across Thanet to prevent what i believe to be a barely concealed effort to locate the site  outside of  Labour and Green electoral strongholds.

Some of you may remember that TDC deputy leader, councillor Helen Whitehead, claimed last year that some of those who opposed the gypsy and travellers site at Garlinge were racist. Well I would counter this by saying that the year long delay in making the result of the consultation public, is to use the gypsy and traveller community as pawns in a game of selfish political interest, which in my book is equally as racist.

Published and promoted by Ian Driver 45 Sea view Road CT101BX