ROUGH sleepers have been welcomed to a temporary protest camp in the town centre called Bolton Tent City.

Five homeless men have been sleeping in the pop-up shelter for the past two nights, which was set up without permission on land at Cheadle Square near Blackhorse Street.

That number was some way-off the 40 homeless people that it was thought may turn up, but the organisers of the protest camp are now planning to move to another site in the town centre and are expecting that number to grow.

A spokesman for Bolton Tent City said: "Unfortunately the first site was a bit open and with the stormy weather it meant the conditions weren't great for the lads in the tents.

"They are our main priority and we need to make sure they are warm and safe, so we will be moving to another site in the town centre."

While the weather may have caused a rethink of location, the organisers of Bolton Tent City are adamant the camp will remain in Bolton town centre until the council makes efforts to deal with what they say is an increasingly difficult situation for homeless people in the borough.

The spokesman said: "Bolton Tent City is going to stay here as long as we can keep it here — until the council are going to do something about the homeless situation.

"We were about from about 7pm on Christmas Eve. We set up early because we had so many people wanting to drop off donations.

"Lots of people have seen us on Facebook and seen the article in The Bolton News and have been round the town centre and spoken to the homeless and asked them to come along."

Organisers said they received donations from the public including tents, sleeping bags, quilts, pillows, tables, food and money which has helped them to look after the homeless people who have come to the site.

The spokesman said: "It's going great. We have four tents and we're expecting more to be dropped off, we are really grateful for people's generosity.

"We have a little barbecue going to keep our hands warm.

"We had a couple of homeless people who turned up and stayed here overnight.

"They all said they felt safe sleeping down here. They are happy with what we are doing and they are grateful because because the council won't help them.

"This is a protest as well because the council has a duty to find accommodation for these people, it is a human right to have a roof over your head."

He added: "Lots of homeless people don't want to go into hostels because they don't feel safe and feel they can't leave their belongings there."

He said a lot of the rough sleepers found themselves without somewhere to live because they had been evicted from their property as a consequence of the so-called bedroom tax, where tenants in homes deemed larger than their assessed need have their benefits reduced."

Bolton Tent City has now moved from Cheadle Square to an undisclosed location in Bolton.

Bolton Tent City said it would update homeless people on the new location as soon as possible.