Fury as 'caravan dwellers' living on beloved green spaces wreck popular beauty spot - as hundreds of homeowners march in protest
As many as 300 residents of Clifton and Redland – affluent areas of Bristol – marched on Thursday in a bid to force town hall bosses to take action.
More than 100 people – said to be a mix of travellers and those choosing to live in vans, cars and caravans – are parked on the Downs, where neighbouring homes sell for an average of £600,000.
Many claim they are forced into the lifestyle by unaffordable rents and tend to stay far longer than travellers who usually camp for just a few days then move on.
Protesters from the 'Protect the Downs' group claim their public green space is being ruined by the vehicle-dwellers, who they say 'blame house prices'.
As tensions have grown between campers and locals, a caravan was reportedly set on fire and one van dweller allegedly attacked a BBC crew covering the demonstration.
Protest group founder Tony Nelson said: 'We want to show the council that the increasing levels of damage being done to the Downs is unacceptable, and it's not just damage, it's levels of danger and levels of fear that we're experiencing.
'We have waste discharges into the kerbside. We have loads of human excrement. There are real homeless people up there, but they're masked by so many from out of town who have chosen to live there as a lifestyle choice.'
Bristol City Council lawyers are now preparing a new 'possession order' that will force the encampment pitching up on the grass to move on. The authority's longer-term plan was said to be creating up to 250 dedicated spaces for people living in vehicles on land due to be developed.
But, accusing the council of being 'too inept to uphold basic law and order', the protest group wrote online: 'This historic parkland is being destroyed by an unacceptable proliferation of vans, vehicles and caravan dwellings. Tens of thousands of hard-working citizens of Bristol no longer feel safe enjoying this vast open parkland.'
The council told the BBC that it had not yet moved people on as it would just be shifting them 'from one part of the city to the other'.
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