EP137: Medway First, Asylum Housing & Eviction Row

Nikki, what's caught your eye this week?

So, Dartford MP Jim Dixon, he's thrown his weight behind a somewhat unusual case of someone losing their home.

Now, an MP getting involved after someone suddenly finds themselves without a roof over their head is nothing new.

But this one has got a bit of a twist.

It's where the guy was living.

Now, Bob Thwaites is 79 and he'd lived quite peacefully on the banks of the Swanscombe Peninsula in a caravan since his marriage broke down and that was back in 1991.

Now, he'd lived off grid at this Creekside home for 35 years, quite happy with the peace and quiet going on.

But then on May the 6th, he came back from a shopping trip to find his caravan had been bulldozed by Land Logical.

Now, they had acquired Swanscombe Development LLP, and that's the company that actually owns the land that Bob's caravan was on.

Now, his possessions have been completely destroyed, including heartbreakingly the ashes of his late son.

Now, this has been a long-running story that Kenton Online has been following, but it's now got to a legal stage.

And at Dartford County Court on September 30th, Mr. Thwaites was asked, asked for an interim injunction allowing him to return to the site with a replacement caravan while the wider legal dispute is sorted out and that's still going to go on for some time but he wants to get back on that land.

Now his legal team say that if the developers believed Mr Thwaites had no right to live there then they should have gone to Dartford County Court for a possession order and followed all the legal proceedings that would have been involved with that um but instead they just came along and removed everything themselves and they're saying that that was wrong that was the wrong process to go through um now they also maintain that when mr thwaites moved onto the land in 1991 there was no registered owner um and after living there for more than 12 years they argue he has now acquired acquired rights through adverse possession which is one of these lovely legal jargony terms but essentially they're saying he'd been there long enough that he should be allowed to stay to live there now as you quite understand the landowner disagrees with that and they claim that Mr Thwaites has no legal right to be there.

Now that's all been heard but the judges adjourned the case after hearing from both sides and she's due to give her decision next Thursday.

Now in the meantime Jim Dixon has thrown his full support behind Mr Thwaites and his family for them to get justice and he's come out and she said this is absolutely no way to treat anybody and that the proper processes were there for a reason and they should have been followed.

Thank you, Dickie.

Thank you.

Nikki, what's caught your eye this week?

So, Dartford MP Jim Dixon, he's thrown his weight behind a somewhat unusual case of someone losing their home.

Now, an MP getting involved after someone suddenly finds themselves without a roof over their head is nothing new.

But this one has got a bit of a twist.

It's where the guy was living.

Now, Bob Thwaites is 79 and he'd lived quite peacefully on the banks of the Swanscombe Peninsula in a caravan since his marriage broke down and that was back in 1991.

Now, he'd lived off grid at this Creekside home for 35 years, quite happy with the peace and quiet going on.

But then on May the 6th, he came back from a shopping trip to find his caravan had been bulldozed by Land Logical.

Now, they had acquired Swanscombe Development LLP, and that's the company that actually owns the land that Bob's caravan was on.

Now, his possessions have been completely destroyed, including heartbreakingly the ashes of his late son.

Now, this has been a long-running story that Kenton Online has been following, but it's now got to a legal stage.

And at Dartford County Court on September 30th, Mr. Thwaites was asked, asked for an interim injunction allowing him to return to the site with a replacement caravan while the wider legal dispute is sorted out and that's still going to go on for some time but he wants to get back on that land.

Now his legal team say that if the developers believed Mr Thwaites had no right to live there then they should have gone to Dartford County Court for a possession order and followed all the legal proceedings that would have been involved with that um but instead they just came along and removed everything themselves and they're saying that that was wrong that was the wrong process to go through um now they also maintain that when mr thwaites moved onto the land in 1991 there was no registered owner um and after living there for more than 12 years they argue he has now acquired acquired rights through adverse possession which is one of these lovely legal jargony terms but essentially they're saying he'd been there long enough that he should be allowed to stay to live there now as you quite understand the landowner disagrees with that and they claim that Mr Thwaites has no legal right to be there.

Now that's all been heard but the judges adjourned the case after hearing from both sides and she's due to give her decision next Thursday.

Now in the meantime Jim Dixon has thrown his full support behind Mr Thwaites and his family for them to get justice and he's come out and she said this is absolutely no way to treat anybody and that the proper processes were there for a reason and they should have been followed.

Thank you, Dickie.

Thank you.