Toilets for travellers living under the M5 - Bristol

From the Daily Mail

A group of Travellers have won the right to stay on land under a motorway flyover - with new toilets installed at taxpayers’ expense.

Council officials had tried to evict the Travellers, but were beaten by a court injunction.

The O’Brien family pitched up on the site near the M5 six weeks ago after they were apparently turfed off a nearby council-run site when their tenancy ended.

Bristol City Council applied for an eviction order but the Travellers - who say they have nowhere to go - had already got an injunction blocking the order.

Last week the council’s High Court bid to get the injunction removed was dismissed.

Now bosses have been forced to install portaloos at the site in Shirehampton, Bristol, after locals threatened to collect excrement in the area and take it to local politicians’ homes.

The call for loos at the site under the M5 motorway came from Steve Norman, an independent council candidate from nearby Avonmouth.

His request, prompted by residents’ complaints about human waste, was initially refused by Nick Hooper, the council director responsible for Gypsies and Travellers.

read more...