A court has extended an existing order
Van dwellers and caravans on sides of roads in Bristol(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
New groups of so-called ‘vehicle dwellers’ will be prohibited from parking on the roads around the Downs, following a court order.
At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge John Napier granted Bristol City Council an antisocial behaviour injunction to stop people living in vehicles from setting up their homes on roads around the Downs.
“The evidence before the court shows more likely than not that there is a risk to the public,” Judge Napier said during the hearing at the Bristol Civil Justice Centre. He said the amount of waste linked to the vehicles, including alleged human waste, was “very far beyond what is acceptable.”
“There is substantial littering and pollution which I have found constitutes a health hazard,” he said, and declared that an injunction was the only way to protect the health and safety of the general public.
The order was an extension of an existing injunction that prohibited people from living on the grassy areas of the North Bristol parkland, and on Ladies Mile. It now covers Parrys Lane, Roman Road, Stoke Road, Westbury Park Road, Saville Road, Clay Pitt Road, Rockleaze, Downleaze, Wills Lane and Circular Road.
On April 16, the court granted the council a possession order, allowing the authority to forcibly evict anyone who remains on the roads around Downs when it comes into effect on Thursday (May 7). The injunction essentially extends that power to any new vehicles, or those that return after May 7.
Councillor Barry Parsons, chair of the Homes and Housing Delivery Committee, said: “We recognise that people living in vehicles do so for a variety of reasons, but are often doing so because they have very few safe or affordable alternatives.
“Enforcement is not just about moving people around the city, it is about helping people move towards safer, more stable living arrangements, while also protecting the wellbeing of the wider community who use and live around the Downs.
“Our policy is to offer support first, but we have always been very clear that when a group of lived-in vehicles has a negative impact on the local community, we will need to take action.”
A council ‘outreach team’ made up of workers from St Mungo’s and other health and homelessness organisations, which is separate from the enforcement process, has been trying to engage with people living in vehicles to help them access housing or a space on one of BCC’s ‘Meanwhile Sites’.
However, space at meanwhile sites—essentially council-run caravan parks which offer a pitch and very basic facilities for a weekly fee plus council tax—is very limited, with all pitches currently occupied or with a pending application. The council is aiming to boost the number of places available in the city from 79 to 158 with the opening of two new sites, although the largest of those, a 60-pitch site in Whitchurch, won’t be open until ‘later this summer’.
“Fundamentally we want to make sure that all communities, including those living in vehicles or caravans, and those in homes in neighbourhoods, have a meaningful and fair chance to live healthy and safe lives,” Cllr Parsons said.
“Our outreach team continues to engage with their clients, and we want to make sure everyone is aware of the support available to them. I would encourage anyone living in a vehicle on the Downs, or anywhere in the city, to engage with the support services available, and take the first steps to moving away from unstable kerbside living.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Napier also refuted suggestions people living in vehicles had not had a fair opportunity to make themselves heard.
Groups such as the Bristol Housing Action Movement and the Vehicle Dwellers Alliance submitted a large amount of evidence against the proposed injunction to the court. However, a lot of that evidence was not aired in court due to the fact nobody had listed themselves as a defendant in the case—Judge Napier said he had still allowed the evidence to be submitted, and the council had addressed some of the points raised by the groups representing ‘vehicle dwellers’ in the hearing in April which led to the possession order being granted.
“It was explained in no uncertain terms that the trial would have to be conducted on a formal basis,” Judge Napier said.
“Any potential defendant had until March 20 to join themselves to the action…nobody applied to be a defendant. The process has been fair.”
The injunction order will now run until May 5 2027, with a review hearing scheduled to take place in September this year.