A community of people living in vans because they can’t afford Bristol’s spiralling rents have been told they have to move somewhere else by Tuesday, or face being forcibly evicted.
The group, who say they are all relatively new to van life, said they were initially told by the council to settle in Greenbank View, a road along the side of Greenbank Cemetery in Eastville, but now the council have told Bristol Live there are too many vans parked there and there has been an ‘increasing number’ of complaints.
Now, with the threat of eviction fast approaching, the van dwellers have launched a campaign to get the council to change their minds, and hundreds of Bristolians have signed a petition asking that they can be allowed to stay.
Read more: A cosy uncertainty - life as a traveller in Bristol
Back in 2019, Bristol City Council adopted a new policy to deal with the rapidly increasing number of people who have been priced out of rented accommodation by the city’s housing crisis, who were now living in vans and caravans on the streets of Bristol. It was controversial, giving powers for the first time to the council to be able to move on people even if their vehicles were legal and they were legally parked on the kerbside.
But at the time, council chiefs said they would only use those new powers in situations where the presence of van dwellers was prompting complaints from local residents, or causing a wider anti-social nuisance. Then, the covid pandemic hit, and the council opened up a number of empty sites and yards - known as ‘meanwhile sites’ to give van dwellers somewhere to go during lockdown. That has continued as the covid restrictions eased, but the van-dwellers at Greenbank View said they are all full, and not an option for them to move to.
Greenbank View is a picturesque no-through road with residential homes at the top, opposite Greenbank Cemetery on one side and, as the road drops down, the Rosemary Green open space on the other. The van-dwellers said it is the ideal place for them to park up - they are not in front of houses, and aren’t causing an obstruction on the road or pavement itself.
So much so that they say the council advised van-dwellers to head there over the winter. Last week the council gave the van dwellers a deadline of Tuesday, April 26, to move away from Greenbank View, and said that the number of vehicles parked there had increased from three last November to as many as 25 now, and this was too many, especially because now the newest arrivals were starting to park in front of people’s homes.
It is thought some of them have already moved on - on Saturday (April 23) there were about 11 caravans visible on the road. Propped up against one caravan was a large hand-written placard urging people to sign the petition, with a list of names of supporters.
One of the van-dwellers, Juliet Mur, began a petition and campaign, with more than 700 people signing it online in a matter of days, to support the van-dwellers. The petition wording explained why they living there. “We don’t believe what we are doing is a crime,” Juliet said in the petition. “We are just trying to exist. The majority of us at Greenbank View are young people, unable to afford to live in this city despite working as hard as we do.
“Young people are struggling to afford stable housing, the average rent in Bristol being over £600 per month, yet wages have stayed the same. Vehicle dwelling is our solution to the housing crisis. We also find this way of life means we have more time for volunteering, community projects and our own pursuits,” she added.
“We want to challenge the assumption that people who live in vehicles are anti-social, jobless, or a threat; when in fact we are engaged in activism, art, law and youth work. We are tidy, respectful people and regularly clean up the street/park together. No one who lives here is a ‘party person,’ in fact we mainly enjoy meals together and an early night. We try hard to be considerate of the neighbourhood and feel saddened that things have escalated to this point,” she added.
One resident of the Greenbank View community, who originally grew up in Horfield, said: “I have three different jobs and even now, I couldn't afford Bristol house prices. Rent prices have escalated and I was faced with the choice to either leave Bristol or find an alternative way of living.”
It's not the first time the council has acted on a community of van-dwellers in Greenbank View. Back in 2018, there were upwards of 50 vans and caravans parked there as part of a community that had been there years.
But a couple of arson attacks on caravans saw the council and police act and the community was broken up. The council had to take out a special court injunction to evict the people living in vans in Greenbank View back in May 2018, and the situation then, and again in December 2018 when more vans returned to the same street and another arson attack happened, gave extra impetus to what was then a proposal to adopt a permanent policy giving the council powers to move van-dwellers on.
In 2019, the council formally adopted its policy, which meant it gave itself the power to be able to move on communities of van-dwellers without the need for special court injunctions every time. Four years on and it's a completely different group of van-dwellers at Greenbank View - people who have been driven to live on the kerbside by the pandemic and the housing crisis and Bristol's spiralling rents.
But for the council and the people who have made complaints, it's the same issue again. Juliet’s petition said the options given by the council for what happens to them after they are evicted made little sense - the van-dwellers have been given information about the ‘official’ sites they could move to, but they know they are full. Moving to somewhere else in the city would just move the issue there.
From 2019: Council adopts new van-dweller policy as 1,000 people living in vans say 'leave us alone'
“We want to challenge this eviction,” she said. “We know from previous evictions, this will not solve the problem, but merely force us to move elsewhere, putting pressure on more residential areas.
“The breakdown of our community also means the more vulnerable members will be faced with greater risk, by parking up on streets alone, such as solo women. The solution of moving us will be short term and undoubtedly followed by people returning, who could potentially be less peaceful,” she added.
“We feel this is a waste of time and money, especially as we have expressed a willingness to work alongside the council and local community, and to respond to any concerns. We hope to coexist together with the community and encourage people to speak directly to us if there are issues,” she added.
“You may have heard the council offering us ‘meanwhile sites’ and are wondering why we choose to be roadside. There is only one 'permanent' site in Lawrence Weston for 20 vehicles which is full,” she said. “The few other ‘meanwhile sites’ are temporary and are also at capacity.
“The council describe these sites on their website as having, 'Limited provision for vehicle dwellers who are currently kerbside in Bristol.’ We feel the offer of living on a ‘meanwhile site’ is an empty promise,” she added.
“There is not enough space on the meanwhile sites for the increasing number of people living in vehicles in Bristol. The council are also resistant to letting these sites be community led which puts vehicle dwellers off. We are left asking the question, where shall we go?
“The council initially recommended that we live at Greenbank View, suggesting it was a suitable road. It is a 'no through' road and is not directly outside any housing. We feel it is an appropriate site for a vehicle community due to the wide nature of the road, allowing people to pass either on the road or pavement.
“We are now all now at risk of fines, a trial and an eviction. We ask for your compassion and understanding. Whether or not you agree with the van lifestyle, we hope you now understand our situation,” she added.
Juliet said the community of van dwellers were trying to be friendly towards people who live in the area, with the cemetery and Rosemary Green a popular route for dog-walkers. “We try to engage with the locals as much as possible, so if you have not met us, come and say hello!” she said. “We intend to hold a community meet up, where we can share concerns and solutions,” she added.
The group are mainly local Bristolians priced out of rented accommodation, but they said their experiences have revealed to them that more long-standing traveller communities, be they Gypsy, Roma, Irish or New Age Traveller communities, are treated even worse than they are.
“We are a group of people who are relatively new to vehicle dwelling but are using our energy to fight and rally against this constant battle with the council and authorities, in the hope that we can figure out better solutions than the violent eviction process. GRT communities have faced continued discrimination and brutal treatment through enforcement for centuries,” Juliet’s petition added.
“We are aware there is a long standing history of GRT communities being stereotyped, racially attacked and forced to move on. The endless social cleansing and outlawing of a culture has broken down and criminalised GTR communities.
“We don't experience this prejudice in the same way and recognise we are receiving a less harsh response from the council. We feel drawn to making a stand, especially in the face of the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, in the hope that we can work with Bristol City Council into working out a more humane approach, when dealing with the ever increasing travelling community.
Bristol council's response
Bristol City Council said the community at Greenbank View had simply become too big again, and it was beginning to affect the neighbours again. “The council has a duty of care to everyone living in the city, and we have to balance the needs of those living in vehicles with those of the local residents,” a council spokesperson said.
“Since November 2021 we have seen a steady increase in the number of occupied vehicles on Greenbank View, Eastville, increasing from three to around 25 vehicles parked up there. While previously the encampment has remained at the bottom of the road away from residential homes, it has now grown and has spread to outside the homes of residents,” he added.
“The increase in encampment size has resulted in a rise in the number of complaints; including blocked pavements, fires being lit, human waste being badly disposed of and the increasing number of occupied vehicles.
“The impact on local housing and the primary school was reassessed and considered to now be High Impact according to our vehicle dwelling encampment policy. Previous requests for vehicles to be removed from the pavement have not been met,” he added.
"In line with our vehicle dwelling encampment policy, which was adopted in 2019, we visited Greenbank view last month and spoke with everyone who was at their vehicle. Everyone was offered access to one of our meanwhile sites, but no one took up the offer. We left details about our sites on any vehicles that were empty during our visit.
“We visited the site again to carry out welfare checks and to issue a notice to the occupants to vacate the area within seven days. This notice also contained support details of St Mungo’s and information on how to access our meanwhile sites,” he added.
“The vehicles that remain on site have now been issued legal notices asking them to vacate the site. If vehicles do not move by the date given, we will look to take further legal action to remove those that remain,” he said.
Back in 2019, housing crisis campaigners objected to the council’s new van dweller policy, saying it would be used to essentially cleanse areas of van-dwellers and make it a lot harder for people to live in vans, and keep their jobs and their children in the same schools. Breaking up larger communities and making people stay on their own so there is less impact on the neighbours also risked making van-dwellers even more vulnerable, the campaigners said in 2019.
Now, the council says its approach is ‘compassionate and rigorous’. “The vehicle dwelling encampment policy recognises that each situation needs to be assessed on a case by case basis, but also allows us to take action when there is anti-social behaviour,” the council spokesperson said.
“The impact of the encampment will determine the action taken. It is important to have an approach that is both compassionate and rigorous. People living in vehicles do so for a variety of reasons, including not qualifying for council housing and an inability to afford privately rented accommodation, mortgages or deposits on property. Tackling the housing crisis and building more affordable housing remains one of our top priorities,” he added.
Last month, the council’s cabinet member for housing, Cllr Tom Renhard, told Bristol Live he had little power to force developers building thousands of new homes in Bristol to include affordable housing, following a series of high profile developments that contain little or no affordable homes.
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