Van dwellers in Bristol are reportedly arming themselves with axes and baseball bats following an apparent ‘arson’ attack on a caravan earlier this week. On Monday, February 17, police and the fire service were called to Clifton Downs where a caravan was on fire, one of a number of mobile homes parked at the beauty spot.
The two-berth caravan was left completely destroyed in the blaze, with Avon and Somerset Police now investigating. Tension is now rising between locals and the caravan crowd, with one van occupant telling the MailOnline: “I have an axe and a baseball bat in my van, and I’m not afraid to use it on anyone lurking late at night.”
The incident has sparked a debate about the future of hundreds of van dwellers in Bristol, a city which currently has the UK’s highest number of caravan dwellers with around 800 people living in 600-650 vans in and around the city.
Residents living in homes near the site put Monday’s fire down to a faulty gas cylinder attached to the caravan. However, a spokesperson from the caravan site said: “It was arson, it’s lucky no-one was killed. I’m not the only one who is afraid that we could be burned out of our homes.
“If one of the houses around here got burned down you wouldn’t hear the end of it, but because it’s a caravan no-one cares.”
Official figures indicate a 400 per cent rise over the past five years in the number of homeless people living in vehicles in Bristol, with a total of 680 caravans and camper vans now pitched up on residential roads. However, there are some who believe the true figure may be much higher.
Bristol City Council has attempted to issue eviction orders, and even to ban van dwellers from speaking to local residents in recent years. One Clifton resident who lives opposite one of the caravans told the MailOnline that the situation two years ago was already a “nightmare”, with one of the occupants of the caravan threatening to smash the windows in at the home where he lives with his family.
The digital executive, who is in his mid-30s, said: “I was on a video meeting with work at about 11am, and someone outside was making so much noise I couldn’t hear my colleagues’ voices on the call.
“I looked out of the front window and this woman, one of the van dwellers, was standing a couple of feet away threatening to smash my windows, because her wind chimes had fallen off her caravan and broken. She was saying I’d done it and she was in a hell of a rage.
“I went outside to try and reason with her but there was no calming her down, and I was worried she might do something stupid so I called the police.”
He added that the van dwellers are also involved in drug-dealing, in particular heroin and crack cocaine.
Speaking to MailOnline, the man said: “I spent a few years working on projects helping people with drug problems, so I recognise the signs. I’ve also heard them asking for ‘bags, rocks and stones’, which are the words they use for crack and heroin.
“I don’t for a minute think the dealers are living here in the caravans, but they are definitely using them as cover in order to sell to some people here that are, and also to sell to buyers who come here from elsewhere just to do the deal. It’s the perfect cover, really.
“You can no longer let your children walk around in the street, even in daylight. They have made people’s lives here an absolute misery, and the sooner the council has moved every last one of them along, the better.
“I do appreciate that some of them are here because of genuine hardship, and I feel sorry for them. It’s complex, but I’d rather not have this outside my front door.”
However, 24-year-old Dexter Shallcross, who lives in one of the caravans, hit back at the “high-level prejudice” being used to try to disperse them.
The sociology student at UWE said: “They presume that rowdy behaviour, general drug use and disturbance must be the van people. I’m sure some cases are, but not all of them.”
Meanwhile, ‘LJ’ also lives in one of the caravans, ever since Covid-19 destroyed his landscape gardening business, where he earned £100,000 a year, reports the MailOnline.
He said: “There’s a cost-of-living crisis raging out there, but I can’t get a job or benefits because I don’t have an address. The system is set up to fail me, so what choice do I have other than to live like this?”
Indeed, during the week, most of the caravans and camper vans can be found empty, as their occupants go out to work. One person on the site, who works from home in a large converted truck, said: “They are all out at work, this isn’t about people scrounging on benefits.
“If you are on the minimum wage or a zero-hours contract, this is a better alternative to living in a shared house at £1,000 a month. A lot of people here work at music festivals in the summer, and spend their winters on the roadsides of Bristol. It’s a lifestyle.”
He also added that most of his van-dwelling neighbours were law-abiding citizens who paid their taxes, and that all the vehicles parked on the roadside around Clifton Downs are taxed, insured, and MOT’d.
However, one 66-year-old woman in the area has further criticised those in the caravans, saying: “Two friends of mine saw a man emptying the contents of his caravan’s chemical toilet on the grass. Another resident was spat at, and the police traced the person who did it through his DNA, although it never got to court.
“This is a good area, with lovely houses, university halls of residence, and beautiful park land. But it’s been ruined by people who live under the radar who don’t contribute to society or to Bristol.”
Green Councillor Barry Parsons, chair of the housing committee, said earlier this week: “The council’s current approach towards working with vehicle dwellers isn’t any longer sustainable.
“There has been a very large increase in the number of people living in vehicles in our city. These proposals have at their core a concern for the wellbeing of vehicle dwellers and neighbouring communities.
“It’s a vulnerable place, living on the kerbside. There can be a lot of stigma around this issue, but the attitudes towards vehicle dwelling vary quite a lot.
“In my ward in Easton, not so long ago when the council proposed evicting a group of vehicle dwellers from a local street, neighbours got up a petition against the eviction. People who live in vehicles are fellow citizens of Bristol.”
And Labour Councillor Kerry Bailes added: “It feels like some people are othering them. They are human beings. It could happen to any of us. Homelessness is very rarely a choice. Nobody wakes up one day and thinks ‘I’m going to go and live on the streets, and give up my tenancy’. We have a duty of care to protect these people.”