The ‘Protect the Downs’ campaign group said they wanted
09:46, 13 Jun 2025Updated 09:46, 13 Jun 2025
Hundreds of people gathered for a ‘Show of Support’ walk across Durdham Down in Bristol on Thursday evening, to call on Bristol City Council to act over the issue of people living in vans and caravans on the Downs.
The event was organised by a new residents’ group Protect The Downs, which is campaigning to have the caravans and vans moved on and for the council to create more sites elsewhere in the city for van-dwellers to go instead.
Around 400 people gathered by the water tower last night (June 12) and walked out to Sea Mills before ending the walk at the junction of Saville Road and Parrys Lane, close to where an estimated 130 vans and caravans are parked up.
A small number of people who live in the vans and caravans did attend, and while there were some heated discussions before the start of the walk, and a low-key police presence, the event passed off completely peacefully.
Protect the Downs was formed from a number of the different residents associations in the communities around the Downs, including Stoke Bishop, Henleaze and Westbury Park, after a public meeting on the issue at St Alban’s Church in Westbury Park in March this year which saw 450 people attend and another 150 shut out outside.
Chair of Protect the Downs, Tony Nelson, said the idea of the event was to show the strength of feeling on the issue, and to press the council to do more.
“We got together because the council weren’t taking any action to protect the Downs as a protected environmental site, they were just hands off and with an attitude of anything goes,” he said. “So we’re seeing a big spike of non-permitted activity, but that is going from anti-social behaviour that’s causing untold damage.
Van dweller Daniel Coles, right, talks to one of the local residents who was taking part in the Protect the Downs ‘Show of Support’ walk to call on the council to act on the issue of van-dwellers
“They are doing nothing, they are not communicating anything. We’ve had a message saying ‘we’re writing a new policy’, but we need action.
“They don’t even know how many vans are here, they’ve got an estimate for the whole of Bristol, but on the Downs how many are there that are occupied. The answer is not all of them.
“A lot of them are used for drug-dealing, there’s slum-letting going on, and there’s all sorts of horrible stories about people being pushed into those vans, so we just don’t know what’s going on, and neither do the council, which is the point,” he added.
“We’re trying to get the council to go and find the truly homeless, help them, and all these other people on the bandwagon, we need to move them on, because they’ve come from all over the UK because Bristol is a soft touch,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the man in charge of housing in Bristol, Cllr Barry Parsons (Green, Easton ) announced that the council would be seeking an injunction to stop people parking cars, caravans and vans on the grassed areas of the Downs – but that wouldn’t do anything to prevent people parking their homes on the road.
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Cllr Parsons said the issue was a serious one right across Bristol, where the council estimate there are up to 680 people living in vans, while it’s estimated there are around 100-130 vans and caravans parked on the Downs itself.
Matthew Strange, who has lived in Bristol for many years, said he lived in a tent in the area, and felt safer with the protection of the people living in vans nearby.
“I live in a tent, my rent went up from £950 to £1,500. The only provision from Bristol City Council puts me living with people who have compounded trauma, addiction issues, people who have suffered serious harm, and are in deep need of help,” he said.
He said he was concerned at the number of people who took part in the walk and that, living in some of Bristol’s most affluent areas, they didn’t understand the severity of the housing crisis affecting people in other parts of Bristol.
READ MORE: Hundreds call for quicker action to remove Downs caravans during heated meetingREAD MORE: Bristol’s caravan city on the Downs ‘not sustainable’ admits council chief
“I’m concerned because the situation is only going to get worse, with the cost of living going up, with rents going up and with wages deflating, there are only going to be more people in tents and caravans and vans, and I don’t think a lot of the people understand,” he said.
“A lot of the people here are over the age of 60 and they enjoyed and benefited from the Baby Boomer years, post-war England – that dream is dead. I wish that dream was still alive, but it’s not alive,” he added.
“It used to be the case that on the minimum wage, a postman or a bus driver, one could easily get into the property market. Now unless you’ve got a lump sum coming through from inheritance, or some windfall, there is no way to get onto the property market.
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“So if you’re someone like me, you’re under 40, and you’re not yet on the property market in Bristol, it’s basically impossible. And I just wish the people here could understand that, and I don’t think that is being understood by the people here,” he added.
Conservative councillors, including Cllr Richard Eddy (Con, Bishopsworth) attended, as well as Cllr John Goulandris (Con, Stoke Bishop), who represents many of the local residents who took part in the walk.
He called on the council to provide more ‘meanwhile sites’ for van dwellers to park in, which have facilities like waste collection and a water supply. When asked if one of those could be provided on the Downs itself, he said: “No, not on the Downs, you’re not allowed to do that with the Downs Act in any case. That wouldn’t be permitted. I am in favour of finding sites, but we’re only obliged to find sites for those who have links with Bristol, and that’s the point. A lot of the van dwellers do not have links with Bristol.”
Chairman of Protect the Downs, Tony Nelson, before the start of the ‘Show of Support’ walk across the Downs to call for council action on the issue of people living in vans and caravans(Image: Bristol Post)
Cllr Goulandris said the event went well, and it highlighted that the council were ‘asleep at the wheel’. “Lots of people have come out, you can see it’s absolutely packed with people wanting to reclaim the Downs for themselves. It’s not a hostility against the van dwellers, it’s hostility against the council who are asleep at the wheel,” he said.
“Nobody should have to live in a van and squat on the public highway, that’s a failure of the council. We need to provide sites, and we need to provide social housing, but absolutely we should not tolerate or allow this.
“The previous Mayor is largely to blame for this, he said the problem would go away, evaporate. It hasn’t evaporated, it’s grown,” he said.
“There is extra money coming from the Government to help the homeless and stop rough sleeping, but actually it’s not a money issue, because providing sites isn’t that expensive. It’s not a monetary issue, this is a matter of political will. If there’s political will, you can solve this problem, but unfortunately there’s a lot of talking at City Hall, but very little action,” he added.