COPS are powerless to move a ‘tent city’ with rubbish everywhere despite it being just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.
The makeshift camp, home to around 60 Romanian beggars, has sparked fury as residents’ repeated pleas for action have fallen on deaf ears.
A woman cooks food at the tent encampment on the central reservation of Park Lane.[/caption]
Some have made makeshift furniture out of plastic crates.[/caption]
It sits at the centre of London’s West End – the most expensive postcode in Britain where luxury homes and penthouses can sell for as much as £100million.
Paul Ostrowski, 42, who lives nearby, told The Sun: “I’ve been here five years, and they’ve never been moved.”
“It’s beyond belief – why are the police afraid to do something?
“We have complained to them multiple times about it but still nothing happens.
“We’re too afraid to walk across there.”
The area has been turned into an eyesore, with litter strewn everywhere, and migrants even using a large oak tree as a public loo.
One of the migrants, 40-year-old mum-of-three Maria, told The Sun: “The police have come but we do not talk to them.
“They stay for a while but eventually leave.”
Despite fury from residents the migrants insist they have no intention of leaving.
Maria said: “We came here from work but there are no jobs.
“Now we have nowhere to go – so we have to stay in these tents.
“If we could have a house we would live in it but there is none”.
The group resorts to begging on the busy high streets – scraping together just £20 a day.
The camp sits just across the road from five-star hotel The Dorchester and half a mile from Buckingham Palace.
And residents who live nearby include former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Phones 4U chief John Caudwell.
Peter added: “It is hard to fathom how a camp like this could be set up in an area like this.
“You have tourists here every day – it is an area that is supposed to showcase the best of Britain.
“This is certainly not it.”
Transport for London has issued proceedings to seek possession of the site but it is unclear when, if ever, the migrants will be moved on.
The Met Police has been approached for comment.
A Westminster City Council spokesman added: “The Council’s rough sleeping services continue to visit the site to offer support and signpost to appropriate support services as these proceedings take place and will continue to work with outreach services to ensure no person has to sleep on the streets.”
