Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Smash School Privatisation: The Wembley Tent City Eviction

Wembley Tent City Occupation | 22.07.2008 16:00 | Education | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | London

Friday 18 July 2008: At 6.30am council bailiffs arrived with ten police officers at Wembley Sports Ground on Bridge Road to evict Brent NUT and ATL Secretary Hank Roberts. He was locked by the neck to the sports hall rooftop flagpole. Below is the press release and a video used with kind permission of freelance video and print journalist Jason Parkinson. EVICTED WITH PRIDE - The campaign continues.

Those of us who were at the Wembley Park Sports Ground on Friday 18th July 2008 not only watched, but were part of, a new height in resistance to the city academy programme. Brent Council decided to have the early morning eviction of Hank Roberts at 6.30 am not only to deter supporters and press (that didn't work) but also because the traffic chaos in the already overcrowded roads would have made them even more unpopular.

The occupiers have received first hand information that “Hank’s protest has caused Council Officers considerable angst and concern. They do not like the negative publicity that is being generated. They are also frustrated that Hank’s protest is also delaying their scheme”. What they do not understand that this is not Hank Roberts’ protest, but a protest by the overwhelmingly population against having any school on the sports ground.

Despite the early hour, supporters and film people turned up at the sports ground well before the 6.30 am deadline. All the occupiers had been served with an eviction notice and required to leave the premises by 6.00 pm on Tuesday. Hank Roberts had spent his third night on the roof of the building in the new roof ‘Tent City’ as he had refused to comply. The main flagpole flew a new flag ‘No academy. Save our sports ground’ with pride. Hank Roberts had bolted himself onto the pole with a bicycle D lock, which was round his neck.

When the bailiffs arrived they were not pleased to see the gathering crowd. People continued to arrive and so the police were called. The gates were shut but still the supporters found their way in. Finally the police swept the site turning everyone onto the streets except the council park service workers who had been ordered to attend. They were getting overtime and they also had grandstand views. Even one of the car workers who lived on the site was sent out, though somehow a film crew and two reporters had made it up onto the roof.

A ‘cherry picker’ was used by the bailiffs to reach the roof. An unsuccessful attempt was made to cut the lock with bolt croppers so, with Hank Roberts hooded in blue fire proof material, an angle grinder finally cut through the lock. All this was supervised by the fire brigade. After they had brought him to the ground Hank Roberts was surprised that he was not arrested but released to address the applauding crowd.

He said, “This is a sign of their weakness and our strength. I am really proud of all of you. We have to make a stand in this country for what is right. Taking sports grounds when we need them is completely and utterly wrong. Building privately managed academy schools paid for by tax payers’ money is also wrong. I believe that we can win. ARK are intending to ponce off us to get their own way in education at almost no cost. We have to defeat that.”

Later that morning Wembley Park Action Group did not succeed to get their challenge in the High Court despite a clearly illegal action by Brent in their planning permission process. The judge did not understand the planning law and also seemed to think that Brent had made proper provision in case the permanent school was not given permission. The judge said that they had made a case for the need for a school otherwise 60 children would have nowhere to go due to shortage of places, but he also said that two years later the three hundred children at the temporary school who would need a place if the permanent academy did not get planning permission, that it would be possible to find places for those children in the local schools! Either there is a need for places or there isn’t.

WPAG are looking at an appeal as well as the other possible legal challenges and the campaign will continue.

For more details contact Hank on 0776 2737 306 or Jean on 0784 3282 450

Eviction Day video used courtesy of freelance video and print journalist Jason N. Parkinson. (C) Jason N. Parkinson, All Rights Reserved.

Website

 http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/

Gallery
 http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/gallery.html

Indymedia coverage.

Feature Page: Teachers Occupation Defends Wembley Sports Ground From Privatisation
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404002.html

Original Court Hearing at Willesden County Court on Tuesday 15th July 2008:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403716.html

ITV London Tonight Report:
 http://www.itvlocal.com/london/news/?player=LON_News_15&void=204972

Guardian Coverage
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jul/16/newschools.schools

Other coverage

Wembley Teachers Say No To Privatised Academy Schooling
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/wembley-teachers-say-no-to-privatised.html

200 School Pupils In Huts On A Construction Site
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/200-school-pupils-in-huts-on.html

Smash School Privatisation: Wembley Teachers Call For Direct Action
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/smash-school-privatisation-wembley.html

The Boil on Busson's Butt
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/boil-on-bussons-butt.html

Smash School Privatisation: Call To Action On All Sides
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/smash-school-privatisation-call-to.html

Right To The Ways And Rules Of Academisation
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/eviction-defiers-stealing-kids-and.html

Smash School Privatisation: Eviction Resistors
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/smash-school-privatisation-eviction.html

Smash School Privatisation: The Hank Roberts Interview
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/smash-school-privatisation-hank-roberts.html

Smash School Privatisation: The Wembley Tent City Eviction
 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/smash-school-privatisation-wembley-tent.html

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
 http://www.reelnews.co.uk/

Wembley Tent City Occupation
- e-mail: hankr@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.tnetcityoccupation.co.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech