‘Caravan city’ residents arm themselves with axes and bats after ‘arson attack’

An apparent arson attack has sparked chaos between feuding homeowners and van-dwellers who live nearby.

Members of the ‘caravan city’ community in Bristol say they are arming themselves with axes and bats for self-defence.

Resentful homeowners blame a faulty gas cylinder for the fire which reduced a mobile home to rubble last Thursday.

One van dweller told the MailOnline: ‘It was arson, it’s lucky no one was killed.

‘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 alleged arson attack is the culmination in a history of bad blood between residents in nearby houses with people living in caravans on their streets.

The caravan population in the city has skyrocketed in recent years, with official figures showing the number of homeless people living in vehicles in the city has risen by 400% in the last five years.

A homeowning digital executive in his mid-30 recounted to the Mail how he had been threatened by a van dweller who believed he had broken her wind chime.

‘You can no longer let your children walk around in the street, even in daylight,’ he added.

‘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.’

Locals accuse the van dwellers of drug dealing and using the vans as a cover for illegal activity.

Alan Tonkinson, 57, from the scrap firm charged with removing the remains, said: ‘If I had a pound for every abandoned and burned out caravan in Bristol, I’d be a rich man.

‘But there are more caravans arriving at different parts of Bristol all the time. It’s becoming a big problem.’

Caravan inhabitants have strongly defended their presence on the streets of Bristol.

A number say they have turned to mobile living to save money on rent and because of the cost of the living crisis, and they deny doing anything illegal.

One van dweller ‘LJ’ said he lost his £100,000 a year business due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hes said: ‘The system is set up to fail me, so what choice do I have other than to live like this?’

Many of those staying in vans work at music festivals in the summer, staying on the the roadsides of Bristol during the winter.

Bristol Council has ramped up pressure on their caravan community, including by installing large planters on one of the most affected roads by the city’s St George’s Park.

Van dwellers say instead their ‘law-abiding’ way of life is being wrongly criminalised and targeted.

One 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.’

The charred remains of the burnt caravan was towed away on Tuesday, leaving behind black rubble and an escalating feud.

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