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Hyde Park: Protesters lose school court fight
A community's efforts to save an empty school have been thwarted after a judge gave them until lunchtime today to leave the site.
Royal Park Primary School in Hyde Park 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.
A group of protesters moved into the main school building but last week the council won a possession order to throw them out.
Some protesters then occupied the caretaker's house, but Leeds City Council won a court order yesterday to kick the remaining squatters out.
The group was also handed a bill for 2,948 to pay for the council's costs at a packed hearing at Leeds County Court.
A representative from the group asked whether the court would reconsider the costs.
The spokesman said: "We felt that during the two weeks we were present we invested a lot of time and hard work into improving the building and the safety of it that the council was under a duty to do."
But Judge Simon Grenfell said that it was the general rule that the unsuccessful party had to pay the costs of the successful party.
He added: "The problem is there is no legal basis you can recover the amount you spent on the building unfortunately.
"This is really dealing with the costs of bringing the claim and having it heard."
Judge Grenfell added: "There is no legal basis although I have listened very carefully to the moral points that the defendants have made."
But he added that representatives from the council would have also listened very carefully to the moral points that were raised.
He added: "Perhaps in certain circumstances they (the protesters] even undertook matters that would have been costs that would have fallen to Leeds City Council in the first place."
Judge Grenfell warned the protesters that if they did not vacate the building by lunchtime today their legal bill could be bigger.
He said: "Everyone knows there potentially could be further costs incurred if they are not vacated.
"There is no reason for anyone to stay there now."
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -4 C to 1 C
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