Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/642/10421
From The Socialist newspaper, 14 October 2010
Save Wanstead Flats
A LARGE and angry audience of local residents packed a meeting hall in Forest Gate, east London, on 6 October to quiz the police and City of London Corporation trustees over plans to build a 'temporary' police station on Wanstead Flats to serve the 2012 Olympic Games.
Dave Carr, East London Socialist Party
The Flats is an area of open land in congested London used by local people for recreation. It is managed by the City of London Corporation trustees, who are allowing the police station to be built there despite the impact on the environment and the precedent it sets for possible future development.
The police spokesmen stonewalled audience questions by repeatedly saying that no other potential site met their (unspecified) criteria. They also refused to reveal the whereabouts of the other sites on the grounds of "commercial sensitivity".
Some of the most searching questions came from school students who accused the police of hiding behind a screen of "commercial sensitivity".
The audience made it clear that they would fight the planning application and continue the campaign to save the Flats even if the police station development was a 'done deal'.
The meeting voted unanimously to reject the police station proposal.
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In The Socialist 14 October 2010:
Anti-cuts campaign
Strike back at pensions robbery
Protest against the Con-Dem's comprehensive cuts on 23 October
TUC must name the date for strike action
PCS fights to defend jobs and pensions
Socialist Students
When they say fees will rise... we fight back and organise!
School students strike in Dover
Action against EMA cuts in Huddersfield and Mansfeild
Socialist Party news and analysis
Con-Dem attacks will lead to social cleansing
Labour shadows show: We need a new workers' party!
Children - a privilege for the rich?
Anti-racism
Community organises to resist EDL thugs
Socialist Party workplace news
Greenwich council threatens mass sackings
Socialism 2010
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
The general strike: Important tool of the working class
International socialist news
Stalinism and capitalism - a toxic brew in Hungary
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