The council led operation also involves officers from Kent Police, the UK Border Agency, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and Kent County Council.
Last week (week beginning Monday 18 May), for the first time, the operation targeted properties across Thanet that are of interest to the various organisations involved in Clean Sweep.
Five suspected illegal immigrants were found by the UK Border Agency in Ramsgate, Westbrook and Margate. Planning and housing officers from the council have uncovered an unauthorised House in Multiple Occupation in Margate, with another suspected unauthorised HMO discovered in Cliftonville at a property that had been visited on a previous Clean Sweep operation.
Further planning concerns have been raised about a property in Ramsgate, where unauthorised car sales were taking place, with the building used for unauthorised storage, while an unauthorised car wash was found in Birchington.
In Westbrook, a take away voluntarily shut for 24 hours to clean up their kitchen, following a visit from the Clean Sweep team, while in Westgate, another takeaway was found to be open for breakfast, even though a condition of the planning approval was that it should open from 11am. Two properties are now also under investigation amid suspicion that they fraudulently obtained electricity. A man was also arrested for indecent exposure in Cliftonville.
Principal Enforcement Officer, Steve Albon, said: "Once again, Operation Clean Sweep has proved to be a great way of identifying problems that we can tackle. This new approach has allowed us to visit properties across Thanet, some of which were checked on previous operations, and we've had some excellent results. It's been a high profile operation, allowing people to see us out and about tackling the issues that matter to them."
Does anyone know which Westbrook takeaway was closed for cleaning?
ReplyDeleteI know a couple of addresses worth extensive Cleansweep action.
ReplyDeleteOne is in Fort Hill and the other is at Cecil Square.
Sericol, Thor, Manston, Pfizer, Cummins.
ReplyDeleteAll merit a check.