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Artwork by Benito BongoThursday 31 July 2008: The GRASS camp at Wembley Park Sports Ground on Bridge Road was calm tonight. A calm before a storm, maybe. And the storm did indeed hit. A week of rain in five minutes. But it was a welcome rain after several days of intense heat.
According to business owners and GRASS campers, the council bailiffs arrived earlier in the day, asking the protestors if it would okay to take their photographs. He then went on to admit they – the bailiffs – have such a backlog of work it was uncertain when they would be employed to evict the Sports Ground businesses.
One business owner said he believed the council wouild not evict them until the following week, probably Wednesday.
As for the protestors, today their outcome was uncertain. There were more people than ever on-site tonight, several new faces too.
The campaign issued a press release and campaign call-out today.
Brent Council claim they have video and photographic evidence to prove this latest campaign is directly linked with the previous Tent City Occupation, because one person seen on-site this week was seen at the sports ground the previous week.
Council bailiffs claim they have video footage of this person on the sports hall roof from the Wednesday before the eviction of Brent NUT and ATL Secretary Hank Roberts. Unfortunately the council bailiffs are mistaken. The person in question first visited the site on the morning of Robert’s eviction and attended purely to document the situation with a video camera. This can be proven by this new campaigner’s footage, as well as this journalist’s own footage.
These claims come as no surprise, considering earlier in the week two park wardens were caught on film entering protestor’s tents and even overturning one.
The reason to try and make the connection between the last campaign and the new one would be purely to use the existing injunction on the new protestors and speed up their eviction.
Save Our Schools 22-minute film available on Reel News issue 13
Stop them Privatising Our Schools available on Reel News issue 12
Wembley Occupation available on Reel News issue 10
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