HOMELESS people who erected a protest camp outside Manchester Town Hall have refused possession orders requiring them to move on.

As reported in the Star, around 30 protesters, mostly homeless, pitched their tents following a protest demonstration against homelessness in the city last week and around 20 remain.

But on Monday a court granted the council possession orders to have them removed.

Hours after the hearing a council official arrived and tried to hand the  orders to individual protesters, but they kept their hands in their pockets and refused to accept them.

The official then threw the possession orders into their tents.

“We came to the town hall square because it is a symbol of the powers that have taken the decisions that have created this homelessness,” said camper Scott, who has been homeless for 10 years.

“They have hidden the problem of homelessness for so long.”Protester Lee said: “Why are people more angry about tents in Albert Square than the fact that we are homeless?”

Gary, from Shipley in West Yorkshire, has lived in Manchester for 27 years and became homeless following a family breakdown and alcoholism.

“Get this council woken up to see there is a problem,” he said.

“All the homeless unit here say is: ‘Go back to Bradford’ and in Bradford they say: ‘Go back to Manchester.’ The problem is getting worse. Just go to any doorway and you’ll see.”

Joanne said: “I had to flee actual violence that I reported to the police and they say that there is no police report. Three times I have presented. When I became homeless I was told to put my son in care.”

And Tomas said: “Why are there so many empty properties? It seems like there are more empty properties than homeless people.”

The protesters are being backed by Manchester’s Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research and its activists have visited the camp.

The campers now expect bailiffs to be sent in.