Council - 'We're not banning rough sleepers'

Bristol City Council has denied accusations it has tried to ban all rough sleeping in the city.

The controversial injunction was part of plans to evict a group of homeless people from parkland in St Judes, but today a judge said it would have been 'far too wide'.

Instead the council's agreed to a compromise - the rough sleepers will have to move on but they'll only be banned from sleeping in that park.

After a short 15 minute hearing, everyone seemed reasonably satisfied with the outcome.

At the heart of the battle is a camp which has occupied Peel Street Park for five months.

The council wanted a possession order to get them evicted, which today it got.

But it also wanted an injunction to stop these people, or persons unknown, from sleeping rough anywhere in the city - in other words say some, a blanket ban on any rough sleeping by anyone.

The new injunction just bans people from rough sleeping in Peel Street park.

The council says it had added the 'persons unknown' bit to the original version because it couldn't establish exactly who counted as a Peel Street rough sleeper, and that it wasn't trying to criminalise all rough sleepers.

Protesters say the council had only been willing to help those rough sleepers with a Bristol connection. Again, an accusation the council denies.

The Peel Street camp now has 28 days to pack up and move on.

But the problem of homelessness in Bristol isn't going anywhere.