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Urgent Appeal: Occupation Of 34 Broadway Market, E8

Nice and warm in there and good cups of tea/biccies. :)

OconnorP7611122005.P02.jpg
 
rednblack said:
i drank a bit too much, and i think i left my rucksack last night :o
Click to expand...

In that case then.... we're holding it to ransom until you promise to donate 6 hours to leaflet delivery this weekend ;)
 
LATEST UPDATE 2nd December 2005

HACKNEY GAZETTE
You may have seen that the Hackney Gazette covered our protest on their front page. We thank them for their attention but we want to clarify some aspects of their coverage. They described the people involved in the protest as ‘self-styled squatters with a cause’. We wanted to just clarify who is participating: There are some local people with experience of squatting involved and they have been invaluable in making this action possible. But it is important to realise that many people involved here have never done anything like this before they are local residents who felt that it was time to act to prove that it is possible to reverse the tide of gentrification. Also there are many, many local people and shopkeepers who have dropped in for a short time to show their support! You are invited to join us.

OTHER PRESS
Just to let you know that there are reporters preparing stories about this situation for the national press. Keep a look out next week!

BUSINESSES IN PREMISES OWNED BY DR WRATTEN OR HIS ASSOCIATES
We have put up a poster letting people know that we are not asking people to boycott the businesses in buildings owned by Dr Wratten or his associates who are just their landlords.
Apparently they have suffered a drop in customers since our occupation a clear indication of how seriously people in this community are taking this issue and a sign to Dr Wratten that his future business interests in the market might not be so rosy!
The one point we do want to make is that these businesses might not know that they occupy premises with a dark history. Many of us miss Prakash the proprietor of Kenny's Newsagents, formerly at numbers 4-6 who threw in the towel after years of wrangling with Dr Wratten. Obviously people also remember Little Georgia which was priced out of Broadway Market by Dr Wratten (as covered in the Hackney Gazette). Whilst we have nothing personal against the new business owners they should recognise that they are part of the wider process of gentrifying the area (increased rents, businesses not aimed at working class locals).

OUR DAY IN COURT
Our occupation has now been served with an application for a Possession Order which is due for hearing at 10.30 on Friday 9th December. We will be vigorously opposing this application and doing everything in our power to stop Dr Wratten from recovering and destroying the building!

PLANNING PERMISSION ON THE BUILDING
Hackney Planning, Legal Services and the Chief Executive of Hackney Council are in intense discussions with the audit and anti-fraud division about the planning consent to build a new development on the site of Tony¹s Cafe. It remains to be seen whether the council will cancel the consent they wrongly gave or whether they will leave us to apply for judicial review. Under pressure from local councillors, Head of Planning Sue Foster has decided that the original planning application was approved contrary to council rules. Although they were aware of this at the time the planning consents were granted they seem to have decided (some twenty-one months later) that they messed up!
Hackney are aware that we face possession proceedings and that there is an urgent need to resolve this issue.
 
Just noticed that!

'Problem With Your Tenant?
Rent Arrears - Eviction Needed? Free Advice Line for Landlords
www.landlordaction.co.uk'
 
read that this morning, hadn't previously known about the other issues, of which they are many... :(
 
It's the the tip of a much larger iceberg - the Guardian lawyers, who obviously checked the story before publication, are pushing for a more thorough journalistic investigation.

Channel 4 news and the Evening *cough* Standard are covering the story as of this morning.
 
the guardian loves that sort of story, gentrification, locals against incomers, corrupt councils (allegedly)
 
marty21 said:
the guardian loves that sort of story, gentrification, locals against incomers, corrupt councils (allegedly)
Click to expand...

When the journalist first approached the editor of G2 he was commissioned to write a rather minor middle-class guilt fluffy article. After the first submission he was asked to make it more hardline and focus on the allegations of corruption, and it became the lead article.
 
Divisive Cotton said:
When the journalist first approached the editor of G2 he was commissioned to write a rather minor middle-class guilt fluffy article. After the first submission he was asked to make it more hardline and focus on the allegations of corruption, and it became the lead article.
Click to expand...

it was lacking in the normal fluffiness, gotta be good for the campaign, with the guardian on board, channel 4 and the standard, the hackney pr people must be shitting bricks :cool: (and i met a few of them a few years ago, they are fluffy :mad:)
 
I've sent a letter to the guardian supporting them questioning what is going on here. Hopefully this occupation will lead to a bigger investigation.

If it is found that some kind of foul play did take place, what legal chances are there of reversing the sales so that the local shop keepers can buy the properties after all?
 
OCCUPATION OF 34 BROADWAY MARKET

NEW UPDATE!

7th December 2005

LOCAL SUPPORT
Once again, thank you to everyone who has been supporting the occupation.
Many local people and traders have been giving donations, food and other
useful items to help us continue protecting the building. We have collected
over 500 signatures on our petition so far. Also we have had a lot of
support from local estates - thank you to everyone who has put flyers round
their estate.

Wiston and Goldsmiths TRA are formally offering full support to the protest
at their committee meeting tonight and have already asked us if they can
donate food to the occupation!

NATIONAL PRESS COVERAGE!
This occupation has been covered in today¹s Guardian - it is the front page
story on the G2 section. The Evening Standard are running a piece tonight,
BBC London are picking up the story today and Channel 4 News and the
Financial Times have also expressed interest in covering the situation.

COURT EARING
Just to remind everyone that our court hearing is on Friday at 10.30am. Our
supporters are invited to come down to the court which is at 19 Leonard
Street EC2. It would be good to meet outside the court at 10.00am.

JUDICIAL REVIEW
Tony has applied for legal aid for a Judicial Review of the planning consent
for flats - the planning consent which caused him to be evicted and paved
the way for the demolition of the cafe. The Judicial Review will be to
examine how planning consent was given by Hackney Council without referring
to the proper planning committee. Hackney have recently looked at the
planning decision but have so far decided they are not going to revoke it.

In addition, Tony's solicitors are looking into getting an injunction to
stop the court case on Friday on the grounds that the possession hearing
will prejudice the powers of the High Court to examine the validity of the
planning consent.

FRAUD INVESTIGATION
We have been informed that, following our protest, the Metropolitan Police
Fraud Squad are 're-opening' their investigation into the council commercial
property sales in Hackney.
 
Divisive Cotton said:
It's the the tip of a much larger iceberg - the Guardian lawyers, who obviously checked the story before publication, are pushing for a more thorough journalistic investigation.
Click to expand...

Fantastic. Hopefully anything thats uncovered will be of use to the legal side of things.

Its interesting that the Guardian initially wanted a fluffy "middle class guilt" angle.

To my knowlege that would have been the first time the Guardian ever promoted middle class guilt on that particular topic. I've often thought they actively promote gentrification with their "Lets Move To..." column in the Weekend section and other articals treating particular, often working class, areas, as lifestyle commodities.

If they were interested in running an "I'm so guilty about my lifestyle" type thing, along the line of the kind of thing they routinely churn out about sending kids to public school for example, it would certainly show that progress was being made in getting gentrification recognised as an issue.

Do we know when the channel 4 piece is going out BTW, will it be on tonight?
 
BarryB said:
Interesting that the article quotes the Hackney Tory councillor Andrew Boff alleging corruption in Hackney Council. Perhaps he knows about this subject after being on Hillingdon council.
Click to expand...
& not just on hillingdon council - prior to 1992 he was leader of hillingdon council, when he resigned to fight hornsey & wood green, losing to one barbara roche - somewhere i have a picture of the two dancing.
 
great stuff, genuine question though, don't some working class/homeowners benefit from the process of gentrification?, although its clear though there are certainly more losers than winners, they usually(not this time at last) aren't heard from as they usually don't have a voice.
 
treelover said:
great stuff, genuine question though, don't some working class/homeowners benefit from the process of gentrification?, although its clear though there are certainly more losers than winners, they usually(not this time at last) aren't heard from as they usually don't have a voice.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about house prices going up, they only benefit if they sell and move to an area where house prices have risen at a slower rate - otherwise the rise means next to nothing if you stay there or buy somewhere else where prices are equivalent.

Also, when they've sold and pocketed the money, whoever lives in their place once they've left it will be paying top whack - so it prices other local people out of the housing market.

So it might benefit some individual working class homeowners if an area is gentrified, but only if they sell up and leave.
 
just come back, respect to everyone involved & the work they've put in to it. Went down offering to do a cafe night & film night, no-one seemed to know how to take that forward, asked if there were regular meetings to decide the way to go, bring proposals too, a way for people to formally get involved etc, no-one seemed to know. Maybe i was there on the wrong night, talking to the wrong people... the rota was the only place people could point me to in terms of getting involved.

Anyhow if there isn't a big public meeting tomorrow evening (after court) to decide how things should proceed, i can suggest those involved call one?
 
i was the bloke you spoke to who didn't know anything. sorry. v tired. but also there were few people there of the many who are involved - we are in court tomorrow as you know. depending on what happens tomorrow, we will call a meeting of everyone concerned to plan activities and just to regulate how the place should be run. we talked about it when people came back about midnight.

did you leave your details? pm me with a mobile if you like and i'll call you over the weekend - or maybe i'll see you tomorrow if your coming to shoreditch county court.

sorry, if things seemed disorganised. we're really very organised in an adhoc kind of way, but recognise the necessity to tighten things up...
 
haggy said:
i was the bloke you spoke to who didn't know anything. sorry. v tired. but also there were few people there of the many who are involved - we are in court tomorrow as you know. depending on what happens tomorrow, we will call a meeting of everyone concerned to plan activities and just to regulate how the place should be run. we talked about it when people came back about midnight.

did you leave your details? pm me with a mobile if you like and i'll call you over the weekend - or maybe i'll see you tomorrow if your coming to shoreditch county court.

sorry, if things seemed disorganised. we're really very organised in an adhoc kind of way, but recognise the necessity to tighten things up...
Click to expand...

nice one. Said i'd mind the shop while every one was at court.
 
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