Report on Thursday 18th Octobers eviction of Common Ground Community Garden.
It seems it was “fourth time lucky” for Reading Borough Council bailiffs today, when they finally realised that it’s not a good idea to inform anarcho-commies (and other assorted revolutionary reprobates) 2 weeks in advance if you want to evict them from council land. Arriving unannounced at 9.00am this morning, they began by evicting our squatting neighbours, giving us enough time to form an impromptu resistance of 3 people.
This reporter arrived at 10.00am, to find approximately 8 police, 4 bailiffs, 4 council representatives and a bunch of burly builders boarding up buildings. Council bailiffs had kicked a large hole in our garden fence, which they left unguarded. After a short consultation we decided to climb through it, sit in our garden and peacefully resist. This reporter is ashamed to say that his resistance lasted a matter of minutes, before he was convinced to leave the garden rather than face the possibility of arrest. The resilience of his comrades was somewhat more respectable.
Leaving the garden, he discovered that the 8 police had left just as the fun seemed to be starting, begging the question “why had they come in the first place?”
Bailiffs and council employees attempted to use diplomacy (a facet for which they are not well known) to convince the remaining two gardeners to leave. Both refused, and there ensued a minor kafuffle. A charming gentleman, sporting a fashionable red coat (pictured) blocked our photographer from taking any pictures of this. At one point, he even attempted to steal the camera prompting the question “What the fuck are you doing?”. He immediately desisted in his kleptomaniac-like actions, but refused to stand aside and allow further pictures to be taken of this incident.
By this time, there was but one comrade remaining in the garden. Council employees and bailiffs, unsure what to do about this final potential menace, decided to call for back-up. After a wait of 15 minutes, a riot van arrived containing 2 of Thames Valleys finest, aka da Five-0, da Fuzz, da Filth, da Feds aka PC 5479 A Hunt, PC 5292.
The officers of the law entered the garden and a new arrival from our group followed them. He was asked to leave, with the promise of some conversation, which he did not get. Once again we were down to one solitary individual, peacefully refusing to leave. The officers of the law asked him to move on; he refused. This called for extreme solutions: one police man got on the phone and asked his boss what he should do. The answer was clearly “do nothing”, for that is what they did….
It seemed that no police or bailiffs actually wanted to arrest our “last man standing”. Perhaps they realised the potential danger that they would be putting themselves in (for he is a 3rd dan black belt in origami…), but more likely there was nobody that was prepared to be “the one that arrested a gardener”. In any case, it eventually fell to a gentleman from the council to forcibly pick him up and remove him from the garden. This signalled the end of our resistance, and we called it a day.
At the time of going to press, several ideas are being floated about to keep up the momentum and build upon the community spirit that Common Ground has created so far. Needless to say, this is not the last that Reading Borough Council will hear from us, and it may not be the last time we set foot in our garden
————————————-
Common Ground Community Garden – on squatted land in Silver Street, Katesgrove – was evicted Friday morning. This is the third eviction attempt, the previous two, which the council announced in advance, were met with strong local resistance.
At about 9am on 18th October 2007 council officials, bailliffs, police and PCSO’s arrived, and council officials broke down the door to number 6 Silver Street (ex-Womens Information Centre). Police and officials entered the property and evicted the two people living there. They also broke a hole in the garden fence.
Around this time a couple of local residents, who have worked and relaxed in the community garden over the past 10 months, arrived on the scene, asking questions and attempting to take photographs of the event. After the eviction teams plans to “board-up” the garden were overheard, two more local people who have worked in Common Ground arrived.
Three people entered the garden and sat at a table, before council officials entered and told them to leave. An argument followed as the residents demanded that the community should be asked what it wanted to happen to the site, rather than a development being imposed without consultation, while council officials simply replied “its private property” – as if this is more important than social and environmental concerns or local democracy. When told “This isn’t right and you know it!”, officials replied “You may have a moral argument, but by the law this is right”. Surely there is something wrong with law when it conflicts with what is morally right or with local democracy?
One council official began to get aggressive and pulled one person’s seat from underneath them, throwing it across the garden. He then started shoving the resident and squaring up to him, while the resident stood his ground and asked the official his name. Eventually, two residents had to leave the garden for personal reasons, while one remained. Officials asked him to leave again, before asking the police, who had left, to return.
The Police once again asked the resident to leave, to avoid “embarrassment”, only to be told “I’m not embarrassed to defend this garden”. Eventually, following discussions between the council and the police, a reluctant council official was told to use reasonable force to evict the person. The protester was physically lifted and dragged out of the garden, before builders fitted boards over the garden gate and over the hole in the fence.
This is definitely not the end, and Common Ground Collective will discuss various options over the weekend.
The Council have stated in press releases and in the recent full council meeting that offers of alternative land had been rejected ‘out of hand’ by the gardeners. This is a misleading statement. Common Ground gave careful consideration to the offers and, as a group, agreed to continue defend the garden where it is, and push for a local democratic process where the community would decide what happens to the site long term.
However, individuals involved in Common Ground have begun engaging in discussion with local councillors and the Katesgrove Residents Association to discuss the viability of creating other community gardens on the land offered by the council. It should be pointed out however, that both alternatives are not without immediate problems as one is very small and slopes down to the river making it potentially dangerous, and the other is not wholly owned by the council. The identity of the part owner in the latter case is seemingly unknown. But all options will be considered and pursued as far as they can go.
Thanks for all support we have recieved over the last year, we’ll be back!
katesgrovegarden(AT)yahoo.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/common_ground_garden