Occupy London protest camp slapped with court order to quit Mile End Park
A possession order has been granted by a judge to close down an Occupy London protest camp set up in a public park in east London.
Tower Hamlets Council gained the order at Bow County Court today for the land occupied in Mile End Park since the beginning of April.
“They’ve agreed to go by the weekend,” a Town Hall spokesman told the Advertiser.
“But if they haven’t gone by Monday, we’ll apply for a High Court Sheriff to have the occupiers moved from the park.”
The camp was set up after anti-capitalist protesters evicted from Communities Agency property near the entrance to the Limehouse Link traffic tunnel in March, after their earlier eviction from the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral before Christmas.
You may also want to watch:
The latest action came after complaints to police by Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park nearby, who run London’s biggest urban nature reserve at Mile End, that trees had been damaged for firewood.
The camp protesters originally asked for firewood from the Friends organisation and were allowed to take only discarded timber that could not be recycled. But cemetery managers soon discovered several sycamore trees had been damaged.
Most Read
- 1 Trial date set for MP Apsana Begum charged with 'housing fraud'
- 2 Tributes paid after Tower Hamlets councillor dies at 40
- 3 Plans mooted to change East End MP constituency boundaries
- 4 Docklands man pleads guilty to firearms offences
- 5 Delta variant accounts for majority of Covid cases in much of east London
- 6 Friends of John Pierce compiling 'book of memories' for his family
- 7 Photography celebrating Roman Road displayed in high street windows
- 8 Police renew appeal over disappearance of man last seen in Poplar
- 9 Man 'brandishes gun' in busy Canary Wharf restaurant
- 10 Phone snatcher admits guilt after robberies in Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets
The authority came in for criticism from Opposition councillors for taking six weeks to apply for an order to reclaim Mile End Park.
But Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman said today: “We will now move quickly to reclaim the land with the support of the courts.
“I support the principles of the Occupy movement, but feel they have done their movement a disservice by occupying a park where kids play football and senior citizens walk their dogs.”
The notice to quit was served this-afternoon by council officials on the protest campaigners who have now promised to move on.
