Van-dwellers Downs campaigners in bid to raise £40,000 legal fund

Residents gather to discuss van-dwellers on The Downs at a packed gathering at St Alban’s Church

- Tristan Cork

PEOPLE complaining about more than 100 caravan and van-dwellers living on The Downs have been asked for £40,000 to help start a legal battle to force the city council to move them on.

And the chairman of Protect the Downs, a group of residents set up in response to the encampment, called on them to be a ‘chronic pain’ to the council.

Hundreds of residents from Stoke Bishop, Westbury-on-Trym, Clifton and Redland again packed into St Alban’s Church in Redland - just as they did in March - to hear about progress on the Protect the Downs campaign, and about an action plan that residents can get involved with in order to put pressure on the council.

Protect the Downs chair Tony Nelson and other members of the Protect the Downs committee said they had everything in place to start legal proceedings against the council, but needed the guarantee of £40,000 in a fighting fund to be confident about costs. Campaigners said they need to have the backup of that much money before they can start taking legal action, due to the fear that they may be ordered to pay the council's costs if it is not successful.

The experience of the We Love Stoke Lodge campaign is shaping the Protect the Downs approach. Residents living around Stoke Lodge raised funds to be part of a High Court case involving Cotham School and Bristol City Council, but lost and were ordered by the judge to pay a significant proportion of the council’s legal bills - running to almost £100,000.

Mr Nelson said there were different avenues any legal action could take against the council.