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Hyde Park: 'Help us pay £3,000 school eviction bill'
Evicted protesters who took over an empty Hyde Park school are now calling on the local community to support them in a court costs battle.
The group moved into Royal Park Primary School in Hyde Park to save the buildings from going to rot.
The school was closed down in 2004 and residents have long claimed they were promised by Leeds City Council that the building would be retained for community use.
The council won their fight to evict the protesters from the main building and the caretaker's house but the group have been left with a bill for 2,948.50 towards the council's costs.
Now they are calling on the community to support them in their bid to raise the money.
Sue Buckle from the Royal Park Consortium – a community group set up to protect and reclaim the building – spoke of her disgust at the bill the protesters are being left to stump up.
She said: "We are absolutely incandescent because the protesters have put around at least 16,000 worth of labour in of their own time for free and the council are trying to charge them almost 3,000."
Andy Beresford, who was one of the protesters, said: "We are all rightly upset that the council are charging us nearly 3,000 for trying to do the job that they could have done.
"Now we are trying to do fundraising to try and raise the money.
"We are being charged for coming into a property that has been promised to the community and it was in danger of being left empty."
He claimed that the gas mains were left turned on and that there was highly volatile methanol alcohol left in the building when they moved in.
Mr Beresford said: "There were shards of glass everywhere and
youngsters were coming into the building to free run.
"There was also a skate board ramp and that was also covered in glass.
"We were protecting the public property and lives as the children could have injured themselves."
He added: "The council has opened up the building to danger again by removing us from the property and opening themselves up to liability. While we were in the building it was safe and becoming safer."
Jake England-Jones added: "We are going to try and raise the community support too. The amount of money is not a large amount if it is spread across the huge community."
A Leeds City Council spokeswoman said: "The costs incurred were court costs and they were awarded by the judge in the council's favour.
"The building was put on the market last week and we are inviting tenders to purchase it.
"There are certain particulars involved and one of which is community use."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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