A homeless man using just a tent for cover says he had to burn some of his clothes to stay warm.
Darren Potter said he had been on the grounds of the Cheltenham Minster because he had nowhere else to go after leaving prison.
The 51-year-old has been burning cardboard and wood to create a small fire to keep warm.
He even set fire to some of his clothes and blankets to create some heat, Gloucestershire Live reports.
He said: “I’ve been too scared to fall asleep because I know it would kill me, this weather.
“I’m going to beg on the streets to see if I can get enough money to stay in a hotel.”
Darren said he was fed up with the cold and claimed the probation service had not given him the help he needed to solve his homlessness problem.
He said he could not live with his wife as he was estranged from her and had been sent to prison for breaching an order not to see her. Darren added that his mother did not want to put him up because he had yet to get his COVID-19 vaccinations.
In May 2017 Darren made a cry for help, when he was in a similar situation, by setting up a tent outside Gloucestershire Live’s office in St James’ House in Cheltenham.
He admitted then that he was no angel and that drink and drugs had caused him problems that had seen him spend time in prison, mainly for dishonesty offences such as shoplifting.
Fast forward nearly five years and it seems little has changed.
Darren said he had since been either homeless or in prison, admitting that he had also been in trouble for breaching an order not to go to the Rowanfield part of Cheltenham.
When he spoke to Gloucestershire Live in the churchyard, he had an empty bottle of alcohol by his side.
He admitted he had been “an idiot” but said he wanted to get the help he needed and he felt more could have been done to assist him.
“I’ve really messed up, I have, but the system has let me down a bit,” he said.
He added: “I’ve got a drinking problem. I’ve been to jail about five times in a year, getting small sentences every time.
“I’ve come out and it’s been a case of having no fixed abode.”
He said Cheltenham Open Door had given him the tent that he had been living in.
While the police had told him to move on from the churchyard, he said the vicar from The Minster had argued that he should be allowed to stay there as he had nowhere else to live.
Darren insisted that he would tidy up the spot where he had been living when he left it.
He said there had been a time recently when he thought he would rather be in prison than be living outside in the cold.
The probation service in Cheltenham referred Gloucestershire Live’s enquiry to the Ministry of Justice.
The ministry declined to comment.
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