Eviction & Injuction Against Squatted Garden? Reading Resists!

17.05.2007
Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den is due to open to the pub­lic for the first time this Sat­ur­day 19th May, with a BBQ, children’s dance exhi­bi­tion and live acoustic music. Through four months of hard vol­un­tary work, some local res­i­dents and activists have cre­at­ed a beau­ti­ful green space from land left as a derelict junk­yard by Read­ing Bor­ough Coun­cil. We’ve cleared rub­bish, secured the area, laid lawn, grown plants and built tables and bench­es. We have recy­cled and re-used and cre­at­ed some­thing pos­i­tive for oth­ers and our­selves. Through­out this time we have been occu­py­ing the for­mer Women’s Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre, left emp­ty after the coun­cil cut their fund­ing.

17.05.2007
Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den is due to open to the pub­lic for the first time this Sat­ur­day 19th May, with a BBQ, children’s dance exhi­bi­tion and live acoustic music. Through four months of hard vol­un­tary work, some local res­i­dents and activists have cre­at­ed a beau­ti­ful green space from land left as a derelict junk­yard by Read­ing Bor­ough Coun­cil. We’ve cleared rub­bish, secured the area, laid lawn, grown plants and built tables and bench­es. We have recy­cled and re-used and cre­at­ed some­thing pos­i­tive for oth­ers and our­selves. Through­out this time we have been occu­py­ing the for­mer Women’s Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre, left emp­ty after the coun­cil cut their fund­ing.

Today, we have found out that derelict land and build­ings are not left to rot by the coun­cil through sheer lazi­ness, but that they actu­al­ly pre­fer them this way. A coun­cil offi­cial has informed us this morn­ing that they are apply­ing to the court for our evic­tion and the evic­tion of the new Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den. Refus­ing to allow this pos­i­tive com­mu­ni­ty project to flower (excuse the pun!) or allow­ing Kates­grove res­i­dents a chance to decide the future of this area, the coun­cil is seek­ing an injunc­tion to pre­vent the planned open day and cel­e­bra­tion events this Sat­ur­day from tak­ing place.

We intend to car­ry on regard­less. This project is a source of pride for us, and we hope it can be the same thing for all our neigh­bours. We believe it to be a pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to the area and we sin­cere­ly hope you will feel the same. With this in mind we would like to extend an invi­ta­tion to all our friends, neigh­bours and those who sup­port us to vis­it the gar­den at any­time from now onwards. We also restate our invi­ta­tion to join in our cel­e­bra­tion of the open­ing day, this Sat­ur­day 19th May.

The entrance to the gar­den is through the alley­way next to the Women’s Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre at the bot­tom of Sil­ver Street, Kates­grove, Read­ing.

Against their injuc­tion and evic­tion is our stub­born deter­mi­na­tion — resist!

Love n Rage,
Com­mon Ground Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den Col­lec­tive
rgacollective(AT)hotmail.co.uk