![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_A-view-of-vans-and-caravans-by-the-side-of-a-road-in-Clifton-Down.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThere are currently around 50 lived-in vehicles left parked on roads around the Downs<\/p>\n
A view of vans and caravans by the side of a road in Clifton Down(Image: Paul Gillis \/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n
Bristol City Council has begun to serve notices telling people living in vehicles around the Downs<\/a> to leave the area within a week.<\/p>\n The council received a possession order for roads around the North Bristol parkland on Wednesday (April 29), having been granted the order in a court hearing on April 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a count performed by council officers on Tuesday (April 28), there were 52 lived-in vehicles parked on roads around the Downs. Five of those vehicles had been abandoned, with the council arranging for them to be removed.<\/p>\n On Thursday (April 30), officers for the authority issued the order to people living on roads including Parrys Lane, Roman Road, Stoke Road, Westbury Park Road, Saville Road, Clay Pitt Road, Rockleaze, Downleaze, Wills Lane and Circular Road, stating they must leave by May 7 or be at risk of having bailiffs called in.<\/p>\n Where they will go is another matter. The council is trying to direct as many so-called van dwellers as possible to its ‘Meanwhile Sites’, essentially temporary caravan parks with very basic facilities for which the authority charges a weekly fee and council tax.<\/p>\n However, the council only has 79 spaces at the moment, all of which are either currently occupied or due to be occupied by people on a waiting list. There are a further two sites due to open which would take the number of spaces available to 158.<\/p>\n However, a site in Whitchurch which will offer 60 of the 79 new spaces is not going to open until \u2018the summer\u2019, according to the council. The other new site, in Lockleaze, was meant to open in April but that opening has been delayed due to issues installing water pipes; the council has not specified a revised timeframe for that opening, merely saying it is hoping to have the new site ready \u2018as quickly as possible\u2019.<\/p>\n The land where the Whitchurch site will be located is due to be developed for housing by the council\u2019s housing company Goram Homes as part of the wider Hengrove<\/a> Park scheme but will now be available as a Meanwhile Site for around three years, the authority said. Another three porposed sites, in Southmead<\/a>, Hengrove and Brislington<\/a>, are currently going through the planning permission process.<\/p>\n BCC is still waiting on the outcome of its application for an injunction covering the roads around the Downs, as well as the parkland itself. While the current possession order allows the authority to order people currently living in vehicles to leave the roads the order covers, an injunction would allow the council to prevent new vehicles parking there in the first place.<\/p>\n Since the court hearing, the council\u2019s \u2018outreach team\u2019\u2014formed of workers from health and homelessness partner organisations such as St Mungo\u2019s\u2014has been talking to people living in vehicles around the Downs to try to support them before they move on, voluntarily or otherwise. The outreach team is not involved in the enforcement process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are currently around 50 lived-in vehicles left parked on roads around the Downs A view of vans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,18959,393,4884,10001,6334,20075,16,15,10000],"class_list":["post-928658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-britain","tag-clifton","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-hengrove","tag-housing-crisis","tag-lockleaze","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-whitchurch"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116494086188594307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}