Ten traveller camps spring up in Kent as the Garden of England sees deluge of illegal sites

By RORY TINGLE, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT Published: 00:38, 11 August 2026 | Updated: 00:38, 11 August 2026 With its rolling fields, sprawling orchards and distinctive oast houses, Kent has long been celebrated as the Garden of England. But in recent years, the county has acquired a rather less welcome reputation – as a hotspot for unauthorised traveller developments.  An epicentre of the phenomenon has been the hamlet of Sandway, where five illegal sites have appeared in just nine months.  Villagers say the spate of building work has dramatically altered the character of their local area and threatens to hammer local house prices.  They are far from alone. Across Kent, at least five more unauthorised developments have made headlines so far this year. In most cases, travellers have purchased land before building on it without planning permission. Retrospective planning applications are then submitted to councils. Even if these fail, legal proceedings to clear the sites are long and costly, allowing families to live on them, or rent out caravans to tenants, for months or even years. Kent has long had a high population of travellers and gypsies due to demand for seasonal agricultural labour. According to the latest census, 5,405 people in Kent identified as Gipsy or Irish Traveller, with Maidstone, Swale and Ashford ranking among the top five English local authorities for the proportion of residents from Gipsy or Irish Traveller backgrounds. Your browser does not support iframes. Four of the five unauthorised traveller sites that have appeared in the Kent hamlet of Sandway  Aerial photos show four traveller sites with half a dozen caravans along a short stretch of road running through the hamlet, with another further off Charities and advocacy groups have repeatedly claimed there is an 'urgent' need for legal pitches across Kent, arguing that traveller families have nowhere else to go. But tell that to villagers who have watched an unauthorised site spring up on their doorstep, and they're unlikely to be convinced.  One tactic used by some unscrupulous developers is to begin building work hours before a bank holiday, when council staff will be at home. That was the fate of the quiet village of Sundridge in Kent’s stockbroker belt, where up to 30 lorries descended on a field over the course of the Easter bank holiday weekend. Workmen spread rubble over the field to create hardstanding for static caravans before the first families moved in on Sunday. Angry villagers called the police and went out onto the road in an attempt to block vehicles from reaching the field, only for one of them to be arrested. One local said at the time: 'We’re all absolutely livid. This is green belt land. You can’t do anything without planning approval but this group of people have just put two fingers up and carried on regardless.’ At Hoath, near Canterbury, building work took place over the May bank holiday weekend. Canterbury City Council (CCC) had already turned down a request to turn farmland into a traveller site with space for three caravans, but the travellers ignored the rejection and ploughed on ahead anyway. Your browser does not support iframes. At Hoath, near Canterbury, building work took place over the May bank holiday weekend  In May, a group of travellers were found in contempt of court for continuing to work on a caravan site close to Sir Winston Churchill's family home after being ordered not to  Councils typically respond to unauthorised developments by issuing a stop notice, with the threat of unlimited fines if the travellers refuse to comply. The next stage is to ask a judge for an injunction, a court order backed by the threat of imprisonment. In May, a group of travellers were found in contempt of court for continuing to work on a caravan site close to Sir Winston Churchill's family home after being ordered not to. The group sparked outrage by transforming a field at Seasons Farm in Pootings into a caravan park in just 48 hours last year. An injunction was issued in August, banning further work at the site, which is just a few miles from Chartwell, where Sir Winston lived for more than 40 years. Judge John Halford found that drainage pipes had been added to the site, violating measures imposed by Sevenoaks District Council. Ten travellers were named in the High Court and found in contempt, meaning they could face up to two years in jail when they next appear in court. With councils and the courts struggling to restrain illegal developments, the Conservatives have called for a change in the law that would ban retrospective planning approval for caravan sites. They also believe that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repealing the Human Rights Act would prevent wrongdoers from mounting what they describe as fatuous appeals using human rights laws. 'Only the Conservatives have a plan to give strong powers to the police and councils to crack down on lawbreaking travellers, ensuring all communities play by the same rules,' shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly previously told the Daily Mail. In May last year, travellers who had set up pitches at Wigmore Coach Park near the M2 successfully challenged the council's attempts to remove them before winning planning permission on appeal. It came after planning inspectors raised concerns about a shortage of traveller pitches in the local area, reports the BBC. The council's court loss means nearly £2.7million in taxpayer money may have to be spent on building a new site, including landscaping, a play area and utility connections for water, electricity and sewage. Plans by travellers Sundridge to move into a desirable Kent village were stalled when a large three-bedroom static home loaded onto a lorry became wedged in the narrow lane causing an obstruction Your browser does not support iframes. Another unauthorised site near the village of Longfield, near Dartford, is currently the subject of a stop notice. And at Acers Place in Headcorn, a group of travellers have asked for retrospective planning permission for a pitch housing eight static homes after building on open countryside. One villager in Sandway spoke to the widespread sense that some travellers were 'gaming' the planning system. Sarah, 35, who moved to the area just over a year ago, said: 'It is just a bit annoying really. These sites just keep appearing. 'It is frustrating that I have to go through planning permission to paint my door and they can put a stonking great mobile home there and it is all fine.' Another villager agreed, saying: 'It just took me ages to get permission to cut down a tree in my garden, and I had to go through all of it. 'We have to jump through all these hoops and they don't enforce it for anyone else. They punish people for following the rules.'