Evacuated Barton House residents protest at Bristol City Hall before confrontation with police at "unsafe" tower block
Police arrived at Barton House this morning after an earlier protest led by residents and supporters at Bristol City Hall demanding answers from the council came to an abrupt end.
Dozens of Barton House residents gathered inside Bristol City Hall to hold the council accountable for the lack of communication following their evacuation on Tuesday evening from the unsafe tower block.
Residents and members of the wider community gave their testimonies at the protest organised by Acorn, but it came to a sudden end when word was given that officials were removing the possessions of residents from Barton House.
This was confirmed as false by Bristol City Council within an hour but concerned residents had already raced back to the tower block and police had begun to arrive.
When Acorn members and Barton Hill residents arrived at Barton House they were barred entry to the office in the building where councillors were sat.
This caused tensions to rise with chants of "justice for Barton House" being repeated.
Eventually two councillors appeared to assure residents that they would receive clear communication and to contact them if they needed any help.
Councillor Jenny Bartle said: "Basically there's been a miscommunication. Some furniture apparently has been removed and Acorn was having a protest. They were informed and now there's panic."
Bristol City Council said: "We understand rumours are circulating that officers are removing possessions from flats.
"To clarify, we are speaking to three tenants about the need to empty their properties to conduct new surveys on the building structure that we have talked about in previous updates.
"Those three households have kindly agreed to have their possessions put safely into storage ad this will begin shortly."
"No possessions will be removed from other flats. If any further surveys are needed in other flats, we will contact those tenants and ask for permission."
At the morning protest evacuated residents spoke of being left in the dark by the council on the reasoning behind the evacuation, the next steps, and the terrible conditions at the hotels they had been temporarily housed in.
Their demands included an independent investigation into what happened at Barton House, and the safety of tower blocks across the city, a rehousing plan, reimbursement of November rent, compensation for residents for costs incurred from the evacuation, and mental health support for residents and childcare.
Shaban Ali, 36, a Barton House resident and Acorn member, said: "We were completely left in the dark, I didn't have a clue.
"The group chat started coming alive and rumours were flying all over the place about evacuations happening. There was a complete vacuum of information.
"Then I looked out and saw loads of people in high vis, officials from the council, fire wardens, just running around uncoordinated. There was no plan, no communication.
Dozens of Barton House residents gathered inside Bristol City Hall to hold the council accountable for the lack of communication following their evacuation on Tuesday evening from the unsafe tower block.
Residents and members of the wider community gave their testimonies at the protest organised by Acorn, but it came to a sudden end when word was given that officials were removing the possessions of residents from Barton House.
This was confirmed as false by Bristol City Council within an hour but concerned residents had already raced back to the tower block and police had begun to arrive.
When Acorn members and Barton Hill residents arrived at Barton House they were barred entry to the office in the building where councillors were sat.
This caused tensions to rise with chants of "justice for Barton House" being repeated.
Eventually two councillors appeared to assure residents that they would receive clear communication and to contact them if they needed any help.
Councillor Jenny Bartle said: "Basically there's been a miscommunication. Some furniture apparently has been removed and Acorn was having a protest. They were informed and now there's panic."
Bristol City Council said: "We understand rumours are circulating that officers are removing possessions from flats.
"To clarify, we are speaking to three tenants about the need to empty their properties to conduct new surveys on the building structure that we have talked about in previous updates.
"Those three households have kindly agreed to have their possessions put safely into storage ad this will begin shortly."
"No possessions will be removed from other flats. If any further surveys are needed in other flats, we will contact those tenants and ask for permission."
At the morning protest evacuated residents spoke of being left in the dark by the council on the reasoning behind the evacuation, the next steps, and the terrible conditions at the hotels they had been temporarily housed in.
Their demands included an independent investigation into what happened at Barton House, and the safety of tower blocks across the city, a rehousing plan, reimbursement of November rent, compensation for residents for costs incurred from the evacuation, and mental health support for residents and childcare.
Shaban Ali, 36, a Barton House resident and Acorn member, said: "We were completely left in the dark, I didn't have a clue.
"The group chat started coming alive and rumours were flying all over the place about evacuations happening. There was a complete vacuum of information.
"Then I looked out and saw loads of people in high vis, officials from the council, fire wardens, just running around uncoordinated. There was no plan, no communication.
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FunTranscript
00:00 They were talking to me yesterday.
00:02 They were talking to me yesterday in Earth about a few years ago.
00:10 I appreciate the frustration and I know that I don't think I can smoke to you down at the House of House.
00:16 Is that right?
00:17 I appreciate the frustration.
00:19 Justice for Barton House!
00:26 Justice for Barton House!
00:27 Justice for Barton House!
00:29 Justice for Barton House!
00:31 Justice for Barton House!
00:33 Justice for Barton House!
00:35 Justice for Barton House!
00:37 Justice for Barton House!
00:39 Justice for Barton House!
00:41 Justice for Barton House!
00:43 Justice for Barton House!
00:45 [inaudible]
01:03 Justice for Barton House!
01:05 Justice for Barton House!
01:07 [inaudible]
01:10 Why are you restricting people's freedom of movement?
01:12 [inaudible]
01:28 We are human beings.
01:30 We are told to evacuate at no notice and then our stuff gets removed.
01:34 We are not happy. We need answers.
01:36 We need to know. We are an action.
01:38 No, you don't. No, you don't understand.
01:40 You don't understand what people are going through.
01:42 [inaudible]
01:50 The organisation of this whole move for you, I do sincerely, I really do, I am very much for you.
01:56 I would represent you.
01:57 But we are here to help you. We're not here as part of the council technically.
02:01 We're here as residents to help other residents.
02:03 So if you need any help, please just shout out.
02:05 We'll try and help you as much as we can.
02:07 [inaudible]
02:33 Excuse me, can we...
02:35 [inaudible]
02:51 In 2018, we were talking about these problems.
02:55 This council always tried to say, yes, we can do something, and they never do anything.
03:01 It is absolutely disgraceful.
03:03 [inaudible]
03:06 People should not lie.
03:07 The city council knew this problem 11/30 of that morning.
03:12 That is not true. That is not true.
03:15 We know the process. We know it takes time.
03:18 And all our figures are now saying they knew this four years ago.
03:23 The city council, you know, the government, asked them, five years ago, city council asked them to check these kind of constructions.
03:30 I took myself over to Barney a couple of days ago, and it was a really sad people coming in.
03:38 I could see families walking in. They didn't know what to do.
03:41 They were distressed. They were angry.
03:44 And they didn't know where to go. They didn't know what to do.
03:48 We got a food hub up there now, and they're coming in to get their portion of food, their packet of food.
03:55 All that kind of stuff they need to take back to the hotel, whatever it's there.
04:01 But the council can't be [bleep]ing buggers and do nothing with Barney or Hatch.
04:06 Thank you, Ms. Schombach. My name is Zakaria Sainoma. I'm here to represent the Citizens' Partnership Leadership Group.
04:14 I'm here to support you, the residents of Father Hill.
04:17 And I just want to ask this question.
04:20 Where are our elected officials? Where are our MPs?
04:23 When the people are struggling.
04:25 Where are they?
04:27 Where are they?
04:29 We are trying to find them, but they're not here.
04:32 Where are they?
04:34 When the elections are here, they will knock on your doors and ask where you from.
04:37 We need to all head to Barton House.
04:39 Can we please all gather there? We're really sorry we had to close this early.
04:42 Thank you very much for coming.
04:44 But please head over to Barton House as soon as possible.