Adventure playground office trashed following eviction (From Wandsworth Guardian)
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Adventure playground office trashed following protesters' eviction from Battersea Park
12:00pm Friday 25th January 2013 in News
Adventure playground office trashed following protesters' eviction from Battersea Park
Damning photographs published by Wandsworth Council appear to show protesters staging a sit-in have left a playground office they were hoping to save trashed and daubed in anti-police graffiti.
Occupy London members moved into the building after bailiffs evicted them from Battersea Park adventure playground on Wednesday.
The campaigners were based at the site for 20 days in a bid to save the playground from demolition, but the last two remaining occupiers left the site this morning when building work began.
Photographs released by the council show furniture upended and littered across the room with some items spray painted with anti-police graffiti.
Councillor Kathy Tracey, cabinet member for children's services, said: "Unfortunately these protesters have shown their true colours. Trashing a children’s play building is pretty disgusting behaviour.
"They claimed they were occupying the playground for some high moral cause - but now it looks like they were more interested in making a mess and damaging things. The play building looks like a bomb’s hit it."
Occupy London denied the accusations and said the damage took place when they were being evicted from the site.
But one of the last remaining occupiers who uses the pseudonym Johnny Remlap,admitted to the graffiti.
The 25-year-old said: "Basically we left because the demolition started, we didn't see the point in occupying the site.
"All councillors and coppers are b******s, I don't care I'm an anarchist. It is only a bit of writing."
A statement from Occupy London said: "The council's pictures, obtained by the police, clearly show manipulation.
"There's paint over the floor, which the Council claims was spilled in advance of the eviction, yet there is no evidence of any walking of the paint around the room
"The protesters insist that damage was done to the building in the process of the eviction, which occurred in the dark."
The council have said the clean up operation will cost £30,000.
Comments(3)
angussmith
says...
5:54pm Sun 27 Jan 13
om/watch?v=UFIpiCDiV
0w ?
Ear-me-now
says...
8:58pm Mon 28 Jan 13
Wandsworth Against Cuts says...
6:04pm Sat 26 Jan 13
The cynicism of the Council is available to be seen today. The Council claimed that the small children's playground was closed because of the behaviour of the occupiers. However, there is no-one in occupation at the moment, apart from the destroyers of the playground. The small children's playground is now fenced off and is labelled a "hard hat" area. So that was nothing to do with the protesters.
One parent walking away from the small children's playground was under no illusions when he said "why couldn't they post notices to say that the playground is closed". So Wandsworth is still punishing small children and their parents for the Council's own behaviour. It beggars belief and destroys faith in those making decisions about our lives.