Carpenters Estate campaigners occupy UCL

Melissa York, Reporter Wednesday, November 28, 2012
5:53 PM

Residents and students in support of Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans (CARP) have occupied a room at University College London (UCL).

Campaigners against Newham Council’s plans to build a £1bn university campus on the Carpenters Estate, on the edge of the Olympic Park in Stratford have barricaded themselves into a room on the ground floor of a UCL campus on Gower Street, Euston.

Joe Alexander, CARP’s vice-chair, said there was meant to be a meeting with management at the university but the campaign turned into a ‘rally’ with around 70 students locking themselves in along with CARP’s chair Osita Madu.

They have been ‘occupying’ the UCL for around an hour so far.

Joe said: “We want to tell people that there are people who still live on the estate, it’s half a century old and we still care about this - we’re not just going away.”

A spokesman for UCL denies there is an ‘occupation’, calling the protest a minor disturbance and the “sort of thing that happens a lot”, putting the number of campaigners at around 30.

Newham Council’s cabinet agreed to push ahead with the partnership with UCL last month.