PROTESTERS who set up camp outside Bournemouth Town Hall last month have sought shelter from the cold by squatting in a vacant restaurant in Boscombe.

The group lived in tents outside the borough council’s offices for 10 days before they were served with an eviction notice in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday.

They are part of a worldwide movement highlighting the gap between rich and poor in the UK.

Soon after the eviction from the Town Hall, some protesters moved to the ground of St Peter’s Church before swiftly setting up home on their new site at the corner of Ashley Road and Christchurch Road in Boscombe.

But on Tuesday evening some of the protestors gained access to the vacant Wessex Tales Vegetarian Restaurant in Haviland Road in Boscombe saying they were using “squatters’ rights”.

The move coincided with Bournemouth Borough Council serving a second eviction notice on the encampment yesterday morning.

One protester, Dilli, said: “This gives us more security for ourselves with the weather and obviously the public and it’s a lot more comfortable. We can use this unoccupied building rather than it just being sat here.”

He said the protest continued to be “peaceful” and the group was growing in numbers.

“A lot of people have now come up and apologised to us and said they have read the information we have been telling them and actually seen for themselves,” he added.

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said they were called at 3.15pm on Tuesday to reports that individuals had entered vacant premises along Haviland Road. They added that no criminal offence had been detected and the incident was now a civil matter. Bournemouth Borough Council said the previous protest site had been cleared early yesterday morning with “no issue”