Move in to remove travellers from encampment
BRISTOL’S largest unauthorised site for travellers and van-dwellers was cleared yesterday in a huge operation that saw up to 300 police and bailiffs bring one part of the city to a standstill.
People living in around 40 caravans, vans and trailers were removed by force from the site of the old gasworks in Glenfrome Road, Eastville, in an operation that began early yesterday morning.
The scale of the operation closed that main road between St Werburgh’s and Muller Road, diverted a number of bus routes, and forced a nearby nursery school to effectively close for the day.
Police blocked anyone, including journalists and photographers, from going near the site, as individuals, vans and caravans were systematically removed.
A community of travellers and people living in vans because of Bristol’s continuing housing crisis had been living on the site for months, after a series of other evictions from nearby sites, and a crackdown on van-dwellers in some parts of the city, like Easton, Greenbank and St Paul’s, where numbers had grown.
By the start of this week, around 75 people had been living at the encampment on Glenfrome Road, which is owned by Wales and West Utilities.
The vacant land has been occupied by van-dwellers and travellers several times in the past few years – in June last year, there was a confrontation between police and travellers there at a previous eviction. Wales and West Utilities served eviction notices this time in early May, saying that although the land has been empty for years, they have plans to create a new depot there, and need access.
Richard Williams, Wales & West estates surveyor, advised earlier this
“We have received planning permission, and construction is scheduled to start this month.
“All individuals currently trespassing have been instructed to leave the area by court order received on May 6. Since then, everyone living on the site has had the opportunity to make alternative arrangements and leave.”
Travellers on the site said they needed more time to find new places to move to, and said that in the court hearing on May 6, they had been promised that.
In a statement earlier this week, the travellers said they had asked for a compromise.
They said: “We as group are simply looking for a safe, sensibly located area in which to live without harming other local residents or negatively impacting on the environment,” the statement added.
The bailiffs arrived early yesterday morning, with police and bailiff reinforcements arriving during the morning, as the scale of the operation became apparent.
Some travellers in the site attempted to resist the eviction, chaining themselves to fences, standing on top of tripods and ‘locking-on’ with their arms in tubes.
But the sheer number of police and bailiffs – estimated at 300 by witnesses and travellers emerging from the site – meant any meaningful resistance was quickly dealt with, and the vast majority of the eviction happened peacefully.
A group of supporters and proweek: testers gathered outside the police blockade on Glenfrome Road, and there were sporadic scenes of tension and pushing and shoving as more police and bailiffs moved in during the morning.
During the eviction, a spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police apologised to people for the disruption.
The disruption did mean a day at home for local parents and small children – nearby St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School urged parents not to bring their children in.
The eviction, and the scale of the operation, which has now left dozens of caravans on the side of the road in Eastville and St Werburgh’s, was condemned by Unison, the union representing workers of Wales and West Utilities, the energy company that owns the site.
Bristol Unison said it was ‘alarmed’ by the eviction, and urged WWU to stop.
“We strongly oppose the deployment of police against Bristol citizens over a civil matter,” the statement said.