Roundabout-home fires cost taxpayer £10,000

Emergency services called out five times in two months ‘We have explained to him that it doesn’t look good for people coming into the city to see a fire on a roundabout’

Fed-up fire crews have been called to a city centre roundabout five times since a homeless drug addict made it his home – costing the taxpayer as much as £10,000.

Samuel Capes-Evans, 38, has been living in a makeshift shelter behind the trees on the St Peter’s roundabout for the past two months.

And it emerged this week that fires he has started in order to keep warm have sparked a string of 999 calls from worried members of the public who have spotted smoke billowing from the foliage.

The latest came on Friday, when crews were called to extinguish a small bush fire – their third call-out to the roundabout in the past fortnight.

Station watch manager Sheridan Hudson-Peacock said the fires were giving visitors to Canterbury a poor first impression of the city.

He said: “We have explained to him that it doesn’t look good for people coming into the city to see smoke and fire coming from a roundabout, and that they worry.

“They don’t know there is someone living on there, so they often call it in to us.

“We do get called there quite a bit, and we have to deal with the situation carefully because that is where he is living at the moment.

“He understands we have a job to do, and we are dealing with the police and the council to see if we can find a solution.”

Two weeks ago, we revealed that Capes Evans – who has convictions for theft, violence and drugs offences – had set up home on the roundabout after he was attacked in the High Street.

The shelter is furnished with a mattress, a duvet and a bedside cabinet.