Caravan Insurance

A group of students have vowed revenge on Southwark Council after it towed away and destroyed a caravan that they had converted into an art project.

The nine-strong art collective Little D bought and overhauled the 1960s Safari caravan, turning it into a monument to caravan-dwellers and a statement about the prejudice they often receive, before displaying it in Trafalgar Square and then several primary schools.

However, the council seized the caravan after it was left parked outside the campus at the Camberwell College of Art, prompting the students to vow revenge by way of a protest in which they will tie themselves to the gate of the council car pound.

Ben Freeman of Little D told the Times: "We intend to stay taped to the gates to prevent them bringing any more cars in until we get our heads kicked in or we get an apology."

He concluded: "Basically, the council stole our caravan then tried to make us pay for the privilege. We don't think that they should be allowed to get away with that."

What makes the incident doubly galling for the students is that the Safari was itself purchased as a replacement for their previous caravan that the council also towed away and destroyed in April 2005.

Their car pound protest is expected to attract a diverse range of students from Britain, the US, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Italy and its organisers have refused to give exact warning of when it will take place.