Update on the Occupation of 34 Broadway Market

This is an update on the occupation of 34 Broadway Market which Hackney Independent fully supports.

OCCUPATION OF 34 BROADWAY MARKET
UPDATE NO: 4 – DECEMBER 16

PUBLIC MEETING DECEMBER 15
The meeting saw a level of attendance which pleased the organisers, and which shocked Hackney Council and other attendees. A head count showed that more than 135 people attended and many were clearly angry and seeking answers. Hackney sent their Interim Director of Law & Democratic Services – Meic Sullivan-Gould, with no elected labour Councillors showing their faces. The 3 property developers at the centre of the Broadway Market regeneration arguments failed to attend or be represented.
Five speakers put their clear points of view and Hackney listened carefully to what was said. A motion was put at the end of the meeting, calling on the Council to immediately agree to buy/take back Nos: 34 and 71 Broadway Market and to restore the properties to Tony and Spirit. The motion was carried unanimously. Hackney are now very aware of the depth of the feeling against what has happened here and we now need to maintain the current levels of pressure on the Council, and the property developers, to bring about the only solution which would be acceptable.

It was agreed that our protest would continue and that we will link up with the Ellingfort Road Co-operative and OPEN-Dalston, to highlight the problems faced by others, and the similarities with the Broadway Market issues. Meic Sullivan-Gould admitted that there had been fraud in the past and suggested that a number of corrupt officials had been caught out in the last 12 months and removed from their posts. But we know that many of those behind what took place during the commercial property sales fraud are still very much in place and in control. We have resolved to continue until they are formally identified and properly dealt with.

COURT HEARINGS
Spirit has received the date for his Appeal hearing at Shoreditch County Court – January 27, 2006 at 10.30am, for a one hour hearing (although we have heard that before haven’t we?). The Appeal against the Possession Order granted for Tony’s Café will be lodged with the Court of Appeal by 22nd December and a hearing is expected very early in January. There is still much to be done.