Petition to remove squatters from 28 Portland Square/2-8 Cave Street, Bristol

Squatters broke into the above property in approximately December 07 and remain living in the building to date. Since their arrival, the surrounding residents, businesses and visitors the the area have had to endure unacceptable anti-social behavior, ranging from drunken shouting throughout the night, through to a number of large illegally organized club events.

Residents etc, already have to deal with a number of prostitutes and drug users on the street in Portland Square and the surrounding area.

The club events in this squat have been organized by some of the squatters and third party established event organizations and have seen host to sometimes more than 200 people. The building is not sound proofed which means the noise of the amplified sound systems set up in the building for these events, just permeates out and through to all the surrounding flats, the residents inside of which, having no choice but to be subjected to the noise. They have no licence at all to put on these events.

The building is very old and structurally unsound and is not fire proofed or had any safety checks at all. However, authorities have still allowed these events to take place, with large numbers of the public attending and allowed the squatters to reside in this property, despite the obvious hazards.

There are a number of businesses in Portland Square that have seen detrimental affect, directly due to the activities of these squatters.

It is recognized that some of the homeless people that live in this building genuinely do not wish to cause any harm to the surrounding residents etc. However unfortunately, other squatters in the building, together with these established third party event organizers, consistently insist on having absolute zero consideration for the surrounding residents, especially with respect of putting on unbelievably loud club nights that invariably start from midnight through to 8am the next morning.

We, the undersigned, are completely against the squatters being left to reside in this building, due to the resulting significant anti-social behavior and activities. We request that they are all evicted as soon as possible and the building secured, until future planning permission has been agreed.