2 weeks of Rooftop Occupation. Public Meeting Called with P4P

ROOFTOP OCCUPIERS CALL FOR PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF 87 ASHLEY ROAD, ST PAUL’S, BRISTOL

10.00am today (Wednes­day) marked 2 weeks of the rooftop occu­pa­tion — WE’RE STILL HERE!

On Thurs­day 27th of Novem­ber an open pub­lic meet­ing is being held in The St Pauls Learn­ing Cen­tre at 6.30pm to dis­cuss this sit­u­a­tion. Sup­port­ers of the rooftop pro­test­ers will be in atten­dance to answer ques­tions, respond to local con­cerns and open a dia­logue with PfP.

Places for Peo­ple are pub­licly invit­ed to state and open­ly dis­cuss what their inten­tions for 87 Ash­ley Road are. This will help assure every­one that they are in fact going to rehouse peo­ple on the hous­ing wait­ing list.

We hope you can attend.
For fur­ther infor­ma­tion con­tact:
Email: 87AshleyRoad@gmail.com
Phone:07722 786 379

Back­ground:

On Novem­ber 12th 2008 Places for Peo­ple (PfP) exe­cut­ed an evic­tion order on 87 Ash­ley Road, a squat­ted build­ing occu­pied by 20 peo­ple who have been made home­less by this action. This build­ing was unused by PfP for four years and left emp­ty until May 2008 when squat­ters work­ing to house as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble moved in.
PfP have refused all attempts to nego­ti­ate a mutu­al­ly benif­i­cal agree­ment, repeat­ed­ly sub­mit­ted incor­rect pos­ses­sion claims to Bris­tol Mag­is­trates courts and threat­ened ille­gal evic­tion. At one stage the sit­ting mag­is­trate called PfPs rep­re­sen­ta­tion “a right dog’s break­fast.”

As bailif­f’s and builders work­ing on behalf of Places for Peo­ple entered the prop­er­ty sev­er­al squat­ters moved onto the roof to resist evic­tion and have been there ever since.
As far as the courts are con­cerned the evic­tion has been served despite pro­test­ers being on the roof.

This press release is being writ­ten on the 14th day of con­tin­u­al rooftop occu­pa­tion and is being sent to com­mu­ni­ty groups and indi­vid­u­als in the St. Pauls area, and Places for Peo­ple.

Builders have board­ed up all nor­mal exit points from the roof, leav­ing the roof pro­test­ers no safe, imme­di­ate access. PfP have instruct­ed builders to ren­der the prop­er­ty unin­hab­it­able by remov­ing ALL fix­tures and fit­tings.

There are no plan­ning appli­ca­tions cur­rent­ly under con­sid­er­a­tion by Bris­tol City Coun­cil for 87 Ash­ley Road. PfP have been vague about their inten­tions for the prop­er­ty, how­ev­er they have men­tioned plans that would not ben­e­fit any­one on the hous­ing list.

The protest is part of a con­tin­u­ing con­cern over Places for Peo­ple’s treat­ment of emp­ty prop­er­ties and it’s sell­ing off of rental stock on the open mar­ket. PfP are sell­ing prop­er­ties via the “shared own­er­ship” scheme while not replac­ing rental prop­er­ties for those most in need. This will lead to an even­tu­al return to the unaf­ford­able rental mar­ket and a worse deal for low-income fam­i­lies seek­ing decent acco­mo­da­tion.

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1 week: rooftop Occu­pa­tion of Ash­ley Road update

Update: Dai­ly sol­i­dar­i­ty demon­stra­tions will take place from 4–6pm out­side the house. All are wel­come —-
Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 15, 2008
The rooftop occu­pa­tion has now been going for 81 hours. Morale is high, sup­port has been con­stant and much appre­ci­at­ed. Thank you. There are health and safe­ty ques­tions about Places for Peo­ple bar­ri­cad­ing them up there. Any sup­port, noise or pro­vi­sions is very wel­come! Come and say hel­lo to the 87 crew, still going!

Res­i­dents and squat­ters togeth­er against cor­rupt land­lords!