Dundee City Council is taking legal action to evict protesters from the city centre.
Members of the Occupy Dundee group remained in their tented encampment outside City Churches on Thursday, having refused to comply with an order giving them 24 hours to quit.
As the 2.30pm deadline approached, several protesters linked themselves together with cable ties and sat in a circle beside their tents, intending to offer non-violent resistance should an attempt be made to remove them.
However, no police officers arrived and fire crews who had been summoned in case they were needed to put out a brazier were stood down.
Afterwards police said the protest was a council matter and they were giving the site passing attention.
A council spokesman said: ”We are raising proceedings in the sheriff court.”
Around 15 protesters were present when the deadline came and went. They had made their intentions clear by posting a sign saying: ”You cannot evict Occupy Dundee.”
One member, writing on the group’s Facebook page, said: ”They are going to try to evict us, but the documents they have given us are not of a sufficient standard for them to do so.
”Our methods of resistance are simple and peaceful. Some of us will climb trees, the rest will sit down cross-legged and link arms in a circle around it. We will sit tight until our lawyer comes.
”Individuals may be detained, but there are no grounds for arrest thus far.”
In the event the suggestion of climbing into nearby trees was reversed.
Mr Alessandro Skarlatos-Currie, the group’s liaison and health and safety officer, said: ”We have re-evaluated it and decided it would be a health and safety risk. We also didn’t want to damage the tree.”
He said the plan to link arms in a circle demonstrated their intention to remain in the camp, but without resorting to violence.
Mr Skarlatos-Currie described the mood among members as ”positive” as they waited for the deadline.
A small crowd on onlookers gathered to see what would happen, but it became clear as the afternoon wore on that police were not about to arrive en-masse to clear the site.
Although some police vehicles passed by on High Street, no officers came near the camp.
The closest events got to a drama was when two protesters who had joined themselves together with cable ties needed help to cut themselves free.
Occupy Dundee is part of the international Occupy movement, which has seen protests spring up in cities throughout the world in the wake of the global financial crisis.
In their manifesto they explain their aim is to ”express sentiments for a society based on human values by most commonly setting up camps in order to draw attention to our, the people’s, cause and put pressure on politicians to take actions to protect the public”.