WALTHAMSTOW: Council "will prosecute" over town square stalls row
5:53pm Tuesday 9th February 2010 in
THE council will prosecute campaigners if its by-laws are “consistently flouted”, a spokesman has said following Saturday's demonstration in the town square.
The Socialist and Green Parties erected stalls in defiance of the council's recent threatened enforcement of a 104-year-old by-law preventing tables being set up without permission.
A council spokesman said: “The town square is booked by organisations for a variety of purposes and the money raised through hire is invested in council services.
"It is important the space is formally booked for public liability and safety purposes and also to ensure that organisations who wish to hold an event in the town square do not encroach onto previously booked events.
"We have no desire to prosecute people for breach of our by laws but if they are consistently flouted and ignore repeated warnings we will."
The authority wants activists to sign an agreement and pay a daily rate of between £50 and £100 before erecting their stalls.
This is despite political and religious groups campaigning in the town square for years without hassle from the authorities.
Sarah Sachs-Eldrige, of the Socialist Party, said of the council's position: “This is absolutely outrageous.
“We are not going to back down in our campaign for freedom of speech and of assembly.”
Activists are organising a day of action in the town square to campaign for freedom of speech.
This will take place on March 6 from noon.
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Comments(12)
Redfox
says...
8:10pm Tue 9 Feb 10
It is about the upholding of council bye-laws.
Read the notices fixed to the railings and brickwork around the town square location(I've seen 3) - they clearly designate the council as owners of the town square location and "it is subject to their bye-laws"!
Anyone who chooses, through ignorance or blind disobedience (common with today's generations) is liable to pay the penalty for breaking those bye-laws.
Simple! Got it?
mdj
says...
11:07pm Tue 9 Feb 10
All very true: now can the Labour Party produce receipts for the many times they must have paid £50 to LBWF for using the square?
newyear
says...
9:56am Wed 10 Feb 10
Sigi from Walthamstow
says...
4:50pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Does that mean that concerned residents who are campaigning for better libraries in our borough have to pay £50 for the privilege?
Does that mean that residents who want to improve the quality of life in our borough - and that includes creating awareness and publicity for
various issues - have to pay for that?
This is absolutely outrageous!
Can the Walthamstow Guardian please interview a lawyer from Waltham Forest Council to ask whether this is legal?
Sigi from Walthamstow
says...
5:48pm Wed 10 Feb 10
It's easy to read.
http://www.yourright
s.org.uk/yourrights/
the-right-of-peacefu
l-protest/index.html
Robert19
says...
8:19pm Wed 10 Feb 10
If one reason for this action is that the campaigners deny the use of organisations which pay for the space then I'm sure they would move if asked.
OK laws should be obeyed in general, but if enforced to the letter they often make the law look like an ****. This is one such instance where discretion is needed, just like the woman sticking up a poster for a lost dog or cat being threatened with a fine.
Political activity is a fragile flower not helped by the poverty of ideas of the main political parties. People are being turned off by politicians. This will only make them even more cynical.
Techno2
says...
12:04am Thu 11 Feb 10
newyear
says...
3:12pm Thu 11 Feb 10
newyear
says...
3:14pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Robert19
says...
12:26am Fri 12 Feb 10
As you say newyear piano legs.
newyear
says...
5:18pm Sun 14 Feb 10
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Tom Thumb says...
7:34pm Tue 9 Feb 10
In other words the council wants to suppress all those local residents and groups who put up a table on a Saturday in order to publicise their religion or their political campaign. Nobody is going to pay £50 for the privilege of displaying their leaflets. Local religious and political groups are not there to make money but to publicise a faith or a political cause. They stand there offering leaflets and nobody is obliged to take one. I'm always happy to take one and read what people have to say, whether its religion or politics.
This is Nu-Labour control freakery at its worst. It is also hypocritical because I have seen the local Labour Party with a table and I bet they weren't asked to pay £50.
What a coincidence that the council starts to crack down when a local campaign group has a petition about the council breaking the law and the council's dodgy tendering of contracts to mysterious organisations which don't keep accounts.