PITCH BATTLE OVER PARLIAMENT SQUARE PEACE CAMP
Published: 22 April 2011
by JOSH LOEB
PROTESTERS at Brian Haw’s famous Parliament Square “peace camp” were arrested this week and charged with criminal damage.
The development follows last Friday’s unsuccessful bid for a High Court appeal on behalf of Mr Haw (pictured above) by his friend and fellow veteran protester Barbara Tucker. The pavement parts of the campsite will not be affected.
With the royal wedding just a week away, Westminster City Council, the police and the Greater London Authority are desperate to ensure unparalleled security arrangements in the heart of the West End – but they have been criticised by the protesters, who have accused them of harassment.
Mrs Tucker – one of several people currently manning Mr Haw’s camp – went to court last Friday to seek permission to appeal against an order granting the Mayor of London the right to take possession of the grass where Mr Haw’s tent is pitched.
Mr Haw, who lived in Parliament Square for a decade, is in Germany receiving treatment for cancer.
Police said Mrs Tucker, 48, had appeared by video link at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court charged with criminal damage on Tuesday. She was bailed to attend City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 11.
Another protester, Brenda Williams, 62, of Old Manor Court, St John’s Wood, was also charged with criminal damage.
In an online message Mrs Tucker hit out against the “kafkaesque” legal process and claimed she had been arrested for damaging one of the fences which currently surround Parliament Square.
She said: “They weren’t doing me for breaching a High Court injunction you see. It was the “criminal” damage. Poor fence. I hope it didn’t suffer too much.”
She added: “Kafka would be proud. What was that thing called the ‘rule of law’?”
In June protesters in a separate camp in Parliament Square were evicted from the grass area and moved to the surrounding pavement, where the city council say they are obstructing the route for pedestrians.
Railings and security guards have intermittently been used to block access to the square ever since. Though the grass part of the square is the responsibility of the GLA, the pavement comes under the jurisdiction of the council – a legal situation which has complicated repeated attempts to remove the protesters.
Last Friday Mrs Tucker told the court she was considering defying the order and would risk being arrested.
Addressing Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger and Lady Justice Smith, she said: “This is a cover up. It’s all going to come back to haunt you.”
Westminster Council leader Colin Barrow had earlier said he supported plans to “end the blight of Parliament Square”.
A spokeswoman for the GLA this week said it was likely the fences around the square would be removed in time for the wedding.