Seven people are accused of breaking injunction barring anyone from pitching tent in city to protest against council homelessness policies

A group of homeless people in Manchester faces jail after pitching tents in the city centre, the latest episode in a long-running battle between the council and an ever increasing number of rough sleepers.

Six men and one woman are due in court in Manchester on Wednesday, accused of breaking a court order brought by Manchester city council and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). This injunction aims to prevent anyone from pitching a tent in the city to protest against the council’s homelessness policies.

The defendants insist they are innocent and that they were not protesting but simply living on the streets as comfortably as they could. The council sees it differently, accusing them of disrupting residents and businesses in the city centre via vandalism, intimidation and public urination. If the defendants lose they face a fine of up to £5,000 or two years in prison.

Some of those named in the court action had been living for over a month in a makeshift homeless centre dubbed the Ark, underneath the Mancunian Way flyover on Oxford Road on land leased by MMU.

Just one of a number of camps which will greet delegates at this weekend’s Tory party conference in the city, the Ark had portable toilets and a TV powered by a generator, as well as furniture and camp beds donated by the general public. A sign out front declared: “This is not a protest.”

The Ark was cleared by bailiffs on 18 September after the MMU and the council obtained a court order. It followed clearances at other tent camps across the city, including outside the Central Library, in the busy shopping area around St Ann’s Square and by Castlefield nightlife district.

On 3 August the council obtained an unusually wide-reaching injunction from Manchester county court. This stated: “Persons are forbidden from erecting and/or occupying tents or any other moveable temporary forms of accommodation for the purposes of or in connection with protests or similar events arising from or connected with the [council’s] homeless policy” within prescribed city limits.

Following the Ark eviction, the university subsequently erected fences around the dry spot under the bridge where homeless people have slept ever since the flyover was built 50 years ago.

The group simply pitched up on land next door, which does not offer the same shelter from the elements.

Ryan McFee, a 24-year-old electrician who has been homeless since being released from prison last September, is one of the seven accused of breaking the injunction.

He said he had been sleeping rough under the Mancunian Way since February after being kicked out of a homeless hostel. “First of all I was sleeping in a cardboard box, then I started to build walls around us like windbreakers,” he said on Tuesday.

“What I was trying to do was create a homeless shelter of the kind that’s not currently available in Manchester. Normally they kick you out during the day. Here, people are welcome to rock up and chill, 24/7.”

McFee said there was no evidence he had been protesting. “Where does it state anything about Manchester city council’s homelessness policy? Nowhere. In fact, it clearly states that this is not a protest. I’m not protesting against no homeless policy. They can take that injunction and stick it up their arse.”

Adrian Redman, 53, from Trafford, has been living at the Ark since becoming homeless in July. He said: “The Ark was not a protest. We were trying to create a space where people could come and feel safe. We gave tents away, toiletries, food, anything to help people on the streets.”



Members of the public have been largely supportive of the camp. Last week around 50 students from MMU staged a protest to call for an end to the “social cleansing of Oxford Road” by the university. Sixty-nine members of staff signed a letter along the same lines, though MMU said several members of the tent group were “aggressive and verbally abusive to university employees”.

On Tuesday Kelly Scragg, 23, a recent graduate, came to donate foam mattress and bedding. “I walked this route everyday and it’s just sad to see people on the street,” she said.

Nigel Murphy, Manchester city council’s executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “The injunction has been taken out to deal with the protest camps which have been causing disruption to residents and businesses in the city centre for five months, and to stop them from simply moving from one site to another. This disruption has included vandalism, public urination, fighting and the intimidation of members of the public, while the police have been forced to arrest people connected with the camps and to recover stolen property from one of the sites.



“It would be entirely inaccurate to claim our injunction is aimed at cracking down on people who are forced to sleep rough in the city. However, like the protesters, we don’t think it is okay for anyone to be in this situation, which is why our homelessness team has been visiting the camp on a regular basis to offer accommodation, help and support to anyone who needs it. Some have accepted our offers – including five earlier this month, some of whom are now living in a building we have recently been working hard to open up as a residential unit for rough sleepers.

“However, a large number have turned down these offers, and sadly the team have had to visit the camp with a police accompaniment because of the hostile reception they have received from people based there who are not homeless.”

A spokesperson for MMU said of the Ark eviction: “We have been working with the council and support agencies to understand the complex nature of this situation and the group, and have satisfied ourselves that our actions would not be detrimental to genuine causes and individual needs.”

Manchester now has more official rough sleepers than any other UK city apart from London. There were 43 counted on the annual count last autumn, up 79% from 24 the previous year, though campaigners say the real figure could be much higher.