PEOPLE living in caravans on an Eastville road have been given notice to quit by the city council.
Dozens of mobile homes have been parked on the side of New Stadium Road, next to the Ikea car park, for more than a decade.
Last year 17 people were arrested in an immigration raid on the caravans, with 13 detained for removal from the UK and the other four told to report regularly to the Home Office.
Immigration Enforcement, part of the Home Office, said all 17 were suspected of working illegally as delivery drivers in the city.
Some people living in caravans say they previously rented homes in the city but can no longer afford to.
In July the council’s neighbourhood enforcement team posted notices on caravans in the road, giving the occupiers seven days to leave.
The notices said the decision was being made on six grounds, including antisocial behaviour, drug/alcohol abuse, proximity to homes, endangering road users and “inappropriate disposal of human and general waste”.
‘Evidence of criminality’
The chair of the council’s homes and housing delivery committee, Barry Parsons, said: “There has been an encampment of some kind on New Stadium Road for more than 10 years, but the groups living there have changed several times.
“The most recent group to occupy the site has been causing a number of anti-social behaviour issues, with evidence of criminality.
“We have been working in close liaison with the neighbourhood policing teams and a wider multi-agency partnership to address this.
“The council’s Gypsy Roma Traveller Team and Neighbourhood Enforcement Team engage with people living in vehicles through regular visits to encampments, whether they are on public roads, or land such as parks and green spaces owned by the council or private land.
“These individuals have all been signposted to support services, including our homelessness outreach team at St Mungo’s, and we will continue to try and work with vulnerable individuals to get them any support available.
“We have visited the site to encourage people to move on and issue formal notices; if people do not move on of their own accord, we will take the further necessary legal action to clear the site.”
Around 800 people are thought to live in vans and caravans on roadsides around the city.
The council says it is committed to increasing the number of affordable homes to reduce the need for people to live in vehicles.
It says it will take action when people living in vans “start to have a negative impact on the area in which they live”.