Eviction Postponed for Wembley Sports Ground; New Threats

On Wednes­day morn­ing the Wem­b­ley Sports Ground occu­piers and local busi­ness­es saw off coun­cil work­ers, who came to evict the local busi­ness­es as part of a sim­plis­tic divide-and-con­quer manoeu­ver, but were forced to back off and post­pone the evic­tion ’til Fri­day.

On Wednes­day morn­ing the Wem­b­ley Sports Ground occu­piers and local busi­ness­es saw off coun­cil work­ers, who came to evict the local busi­ness­es as part of a sim­plis­tic divide-and-con­quer manoeu­ver, but were forced to back off and post­pone the evic­tion ’til Fri­day.

Last Sat­ur­day, the 26th, saw a new group occu­py the Wem­b­ley Sports Ground. The group, called GRASS (Grass-Roots Alliance for Social Spaces), claims that the con­struc­tion of a new Acad­e­my on the grounds will close them off from the local com­mu­ni­ty and exclude many chil­dren and young peo­ple from using it. With dwin­dling com­mu­ni­ty resources due to fund­ing cuts across the nation (to help pay for the Olympics), and reports of ris­ing youth crime and vio­lence all over Lon­don, the group says that exclud­ing even more young peo­ple from safe social spaces could dri­ve them to the streets, and towards vio­lent gang crime.

On Mon­day, con­struc­tion work­ers and land sur­vey­ors attempt­ed to enter the site, and found them­selves faced with locals and campers, as well as a large tire bar­ri­cade. The locals chat­ted to the work­ers and informed them of what was going on, while the campers buck­led down in front of the gate. The work­ers left and every­one had a nice drink in the sun.

After this, the coun­cil decid­ed to try out the usu­al tac­tics of author­i­ty every­where, and informed the busi­ness­es on the site (four in all: the foot­ball ground, a kids’ nurs­ery, a motor­bike dri­ving school and a car­wash) that they must leave by Wednes­day 9am. Any­one could see this as an attempt to turn busi­ness­es against com­mu­ni­ty, and the plan back­fired as the busi­ness­es held a meet­ing and decid­ed to resist, along with the camp occu­piers. On Wednes­day morn­ing a coun­cil work­er, along with a legal aide, arrived on site and informed the busi­ness­es that their evic­tion has been post­poned until Fri­day morn­ing.

Brent Coun­cil is in deep trou­ble, as they have already promised sev­er­al par­ents that their chil­dren have places in the unbuilt school, which is due to open at the begin­ning of the school year in Sep­tem­ber. With less than five weeks to go, it has become abun­dant­ly clear that the pri­vate­ly-owned and run acad­e­my (fund­ed by ARK, a chil­dren’s “char­i­ty” man­aged by sev­er­al rich busi­ness­men, includ­ing Arpad Bus­son) will not be built in time. Sources say that the plan is for sev­er­al por­ta­cab­ins to be laid out to start with, while the school itself will be built around the stu­dents dur­ing the school year.

Mean­while, the cam­paign by locals to keep their sports­ground open and free of pri­va­tised edu­ca­tion has been going for the past two years, as con­sul­ta­tions with the com­mu­ni­ty have result­ed in open mass oppo­si­tion to the idea. The coun­cil, how­ev­er, has steam­rollered over the opin­ions of local peo­ple and went ahead with the plan.

Tomor­row is Fri­day, and there are reports of sev­er­al coun­ter­mea­sures being con­truct­ed to stop the bailiffs from evict­ing the camp­ground and busi­ness­es. If you are inter­est­ed in com­ing along to help, there are plen­ty of tents and sleep­ing bags, and you will be made wel­come. The sports ground is on Forty Avenue, Wem­b­ley Park Sta­tion being the near­est tube. For infor­ma­tion and direc­tions, please call 07533192116.