A letter regarding Occupy Liverpool

I received a copy of this letter today from a sympathetic resident of 1 Crosshall Street, an apartment building near Occupy Liverpool. Those occupying the building will likely be familiar with the information provided, but I think it’s an interesting read nonetheless. I have copied the wording of the body of the letter verbatim and provided contact details of the signees at the bottom.


The body of the letter reads as follows:

Dear Resident 

Occupy Liverpool

We are writing to you to update you on the Occupy Liverpool protests. As you be aware, a group of protestors are squatting in the Tinlings Building on Crosshall Street and have been there for the last couple of weeks.

Residents living in your building have contacted us with concerns around safety and noise.

We have been working closely with the Police and the City Council’s Environmental Team to deal with these issues and wanted to let you know where things are up to:

• The Tinlings Building is subject to a prohibition notice served by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS), the protestors have been advised on the risk from fire and the presence of asbestos in the building but have chosen to remain in the building. MFRS have therefore discharged their duty of care   
• The building owners, Huntsmere Developments Ltd have commenced legal action to obtain an injunction to take the building back. It is estimated that it will be 3 to 4 weeks before the injunction is obtained. Once they have the injunction, Huntsmere will appoint bailiffs to remove the protesters, the Police’s role being to prevent a breach of the peace.
• The occupation of the building is lawful until such time as the injunction is obtained.

We would ask residents to continue to report any specific issues they have with the protestors.

With kind regards

Councillors Nick Small, Sharon Sullivan & Christine Banks

Labour Councillor for Central Ward

The councillors’ contact details are as follows:

Councillor Nick Small: 07986 445 820 nick.small@liverpool.gov.uk

Councillor Sharon Sullivan: 0151 225 2366 sharon.sullivan@liverpool.gov.uk

Councillor Christine Banks: 07732 222 940 christine.banks@liverpool.gov.uk

Also of interest will be the website of Huntsmere Developments Ltd. You can find them at http://www.huntsmere.co.uk/

Judging from their portfolio, the Tinlings Building, after many years lying empty and abandoned while space such as this is at a premium in Liverpool, is set to become, at an as yet unspecified date in the future, yet more luxury apartments which those most in need of housing in the city will never be able to afford. The space has much more potential under Occupy Liverpool’s plans to turn the building into a community centre.

As Liverpool City Council abandons spaces such as these and turns them over to the private sector (which often leaves spaces empty for years) and at the same time cuts funding to services on which residents of the city rely, activists should be prepared to occupy spaces such as these and turn them over to positive use for the people of Liverpool. I’m sure if this were to happen, the public, including residents of the apartment building mentioned earlier, would give it their support.