Are there too many van dwellers in Glastonbury?

There are about 300 people living by the roadside or in unauthorised encampments in and around Glastonbury, according to a report to Somerset Council.

Only Bristol has more in number, but Glastonbury has the highest density in the UK.

The BBC has been speaking to van dwellers about why they live that lifestyle and finding out what Somerset Council is doing to create the regulated site it promised as part of the Glastonbury Town Deal.

The people living in vans

Van dwellers Luke Grossmith and his partner Jess Dane have been living in a van in the Beckery area for 18 months while they set up their own business

Luke Grossmith and his partner Jess Dane have been living in a van in Glastonbury for 18 months.

They said it had enabled them to save the money to set up their own business, a therapy centre at the foot of Glastonbury Tor.

Mr Grossmith said: "We are trying to find a way to do the most realistic and responsible means of living off-grid."

Ms Dane said a regulated site was a "good idea", but she did not "have that much confidence the council would take into account exactly what the van dwellers would want from that kind of set-up".

Deejay McCloud said he would like to live on a regulated site, but work first needed to be done to repair relations with the police and the council

Deejay McCloud described himself as a "non bricks and mortar dweller" who had been homeless in this area since he was a young teenager.

"I feel it's important for us to educate ourselves to know where we stand, regarding so-called illegal encampments, because it's our way forward to having a little bit of safety and security," he said.

"The key to being a human being is having a safe, warm place to put your head."

Mr McCloud said he would like to live on a regulated site, but first he said barriers needed to be broken down between the community, the council and the police, as he felt non bricks and mortar dwellers were often treated "as obstacles".

Anette is a horse-drawn traveller who has been living in Glastonbury on and off since the 1980s

Anette, 63, describes herself as a horse-drawn traveller and lives in a caravan on what she calls a "tolerated site".

She said: "We don't believe in land ownership. [We have a] different mindset all together."

Anette has been going to Glastonbury since the 1980s and runs shows with the horses in the Midlands in the summer before spending the winter in Glastonbury.

She says she lives this lifestyle because she enjoys "the closeness to nature".

"It's freedom fundamentally," she added.

Community tension

While some people live in vans and caravans peacefully, councillor Lillith Osborn, who is the leader of the Conservative group on Glastonbury Town Council, said she got lots of complaints from tax payers covering issues from anti-social behaviour to concerns about where people went to the toilet.

She said "van dwellers are not welcome in Glastonbury" and believes the town "reached saturation point some time ago".

"It causes a great deal of problems because we have a lot of people living here who are not contributing" in terms of council tax, she said.

"If you've got people taking out of the services without putting in, then you can't budget for it. You can't do anything."

Adam Shepherd, who runs Sweet Track Fitness, said mess, dumped caravans and rubbish were all issues

Adam Shepherd has been running Sweet Track Fitness on the Morland estate for nine years.

"We're surrounded by mess, dumped caravans, vans, piles and piles of rubbish, dogs running around while not on a lead, dog excrement, human excrement and I've had threats as a business owner," he said.

"I have no problems with how people want to live – whether it's out of choice or not. We all have hard times. But if that's how you want to live, that's great, but the rest of us have to pay taxes. We have to pay to have our rubbish taken, we don't just dump it to be collected and paid for by someone else."

Artist and van dweller Ady Szucik is calling on people to be more understanding

Some of the van dwellers have told the BBC the hostility goes both ways, and many of them are unhappy about the minority of van dwellers who do not manage their own rubbish, or who act in a way that might give all van dwellers a bad name.

Artist Ady Szucik lives in a van when he works in Glastonbury. He said: "I've even had eggs thrown at my van. People tend to fear what they don't understand."

He asked people to be more understanding, saying: "Think about why people are living like this.

"I do understand it [the hostility]. There are anti-social behaviours and there's as many reasons why people live like they do. Some are a bit unfortunate and that can overspill into the community.

"It's all about having respect to the community. It works both ways."

Caravans on the roadside at Roman Way in Glastonbury

Osborn has called on Somerset Council to build the regulated site with permanent pitches it first promised as part of the Glastonbury Town Deal in September 2022.

The area has been given £1.4m from the government to make this happen on top of another £1.8m from other sources.

She claimed Somerset Council was "dragging its feet".

"It should be providing a proper site, with proper facilities, charging rent and charging council tax. And that way the problem would just disappear because those people would then become net inputters into the system," she said.

Councillor Mike Rigby said the council was doing everything it could to create a regulated site for van dwellers in Glastonbury

Mike Rigby, the council's lead member for planning, economic development and assets, said: "We've tried to bust a gut to get this done.

"Glastonbury has seen a huge influx of people living like this and there is a desire to see that formalised in a way that doesn't see people living in hedges and on riverbanks.

"Somerset Council and Mendip Council before it have taken huge efforts to try to find space.

"I think the problem is everyone in the area thinks there ought to be formal sites for housing these sites and caravans, but just not near them."

Somerset Council said it had planned to build almost 40 pitches on land it owned at Porchestall Drove, until it realised the land flooded.

Last summer, it bought an old coal yard in Beckery but Rigby said work had stalled when people occupied it and, as a result, the council had had to scale back its plans.

Mr Rigby said: "It's not going to deal with the problem in its totality, but it will make a big dent in the issue as it exists in Glastonbury today."

Somerset Council now has about a year to get the regulated site up and running, or it may be asked to return the government money.