Corporation of London restarts legal action over St Paul's camp
The planning and highways committee of the City of London Corporation has voted to re-commence legal action to clear tents from public highways around St. Paul’s Cathedral, after talks with the occupants stalled.
Stuart Fraser, Policy Chairman of the Corporation, said: “We paused legal action for two weeks for talks with those in the camp on how to shrink the extent of the tents and to set a departure date – but got nowhere. So, sadly, now they have rejected a reasonable offer to let them stay until the New Year, it’s got to be the courts. We’d still like to sort this without court action but from now on we will have to have any talks in parallel with court action – not instead.”
Fraser said the Corporation had received reports about vulnerable people, cases of late-night drinking “and other worrying trends” and it was therefore time to act.
“It will clearly take time but we are determined to see this through,” he said. “Lawful protesters who stand or walk are a regular part of London. But tents, equipment and now, increasingly, quite a lot of mess, is not what a highway is for and others are losing out.”
The Corporation has outlined its proposed course of action. This began on Tuesday (15 November) with a letter to the law firm representing some of the occupants of the tents.
This is expected to be followed by:
- A notice on Wednesday (16 November) to those with tents and equipment asking them to move these items within 24 hours
- If tents and equipment still remain, proceedings in the High Court
- Further attempts to reach an agreement, "backed up by a consent order, to avoid costly court hearings"
- A further meeting of the Planning and Transportation Committee to decide on whether to take a decision on enforcement action, “assuming the City of London Corporation succeeds in the court proceedings”.
“Court action is likely to take weeks and no enforcement action will take place without a further committee debate,” the Corporation said.
Philip Hoult
