mass picnic and a grilling

On Sunday, 6th September about 200 people gathered for a mass picnic against the planned Metropolitan Police operational centre for the Olympics 2012 on Wandstead Flats. Although the sky was grey and a brisk wind was keeping the kite flyers busy, the announced rain never came. The superintendent for the park was brave enough to attend and got grilled by local residents about numerous issues with the plans, such as lack of consultation with the local residents, the changes that would be made to Epping forest act, concerns about traffic and much, much more.

See call | Save Wandstead Flats | more about the Olympics (check this site for video of the event in a few days) | and keep an eye on the Olympics wire on Indy

the grilling

Ever since over 250 people attended a packed public meeting in July, residents living near Wanstead Flats have been demanding answers about plans by the City of London Corporation to allow the Metropolitan Police to base its Olympics operational centre on the Flats in 2012. In order to push this proposal through, the Corporation would need to amend an Act of Parliament that has protected Wanstead Flats from enclosure and development for well over a century.

Local people want to know why the proposed site for this police base, west of Centre Road, has been chosen, how that decision was made and why the Olympic stadium site itself cannot be used. There has been no consultation, even though the plans involve locating a fenced, high-security compound - with buildings, parking areas, stables and apparently even police holding cells - for at least 120 days and so close to residential neighbourhoods.

The Save Wanstead Flats campaign is organised by local people and on Sunday 5 September, we'd like to invite you to show your opposition to the City of London Corporation’s plans by joining us for a picnic - occupying the very spot where the police operations base would be constructed.

If you have any links with articles about this event or the Olympics in general, please post in the comments, or even better, publish an other media post and don't forget to tag it for the Olympics wire!

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To find out why I'm not linking to the facebook group of this event, check this cool article.