Monday 8 November 2010

Lea Canal Olympic Closure




Following on from last weeks ding dong over our sunrise being knicked by the Olympics (http://leabanksquare.blogspot.com/2010/11/olympics-have-stolen-our-sunrise.html) - we now have more to worry about.

Although - supposedly - nothing has yet been decided - there are rumours flying around that the Lea is going to be closed off for a couple of months over the actual games times. This includes the towpath - and could possibly include the Purple Recycled Garden!!

The police are using 'a potential terrorist threat' as the security-creep into making us not going about our daily business of living alongside the Olympic Park. Many of us use the towpath to cycle along (myself - at least 10 times a week - and on most weekends as well), walk our dogs, fish, ramble, forage - and of course - we have our rowing boat as well.
Well - it seems as though we going to be considered a terrorist threat if we carry on doing these things around games times!

Let's just re-cap here: We have all being living here long before the games were even suggested for Hackney Wick. We then had Arena Fields stolen from us by an Act of Parliament in order to build the games on top of. - that's a massive green field that now has concrete all on top of. We then have had to put up with years of disruption, noise, dust, wolf whistles, overlooking cranes, etc in order to build the games. We have thousands of CCTV cameras sucking up our images each time we walk along their/our perimeter. We have electric fences stuck directly in front of us.

And now - we are not even aloud to carry on living normally along our own river?!

If the threat of us not being able to garden in the Purple Recycled Garden comes true - then we are not even going to be able to get any of our crops of salads, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, brassicas, berries, figs, carrots, beetroot, etc. Remember everyone - this is the height of summer - this is the most important time of the year for any gardener - but more so for an edible garden.

So - what are we going to do?

Well - please write to all of our councillors to tell them how you feel about the Lea closure. Please also write to Meg Hillier and the appropriate ministers in the ConDem government.

This is more than just our usual noise, dust & disruption argument with the Scientolympic brainwashed representatives. These are our civil liberties we are talking about. Our right to live freely & happily as everyone else does.

See also:
http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/river_row_over_olympic_security_fears_1_719545



17 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Su said...

First they take the promised marathon away from us, now they want to take our river away from us.
If they hate the east end so much, why did they plonk the whole olympics on top of us anyway?
Su

Matt said...

First of all there is no way they can close the purple garden, its private property, it belongs to us, it's not council or british waterways.
Secondly we must fight as hard as we can to keep out river and towpath open during the games. They've outpriced all residents in hackney, so the only way we are going to get a whiff of the olympic atmosfear is by walking our dogs along our towpath.
Matt

Paul said...

Sóna, kile I said at yesterdays meeting, we will jsut have to resort to some civil disobedience in order to draw attention to the way the olympics have treated us. I'm all for us simply marching & squatting along the canal during the games. Thankfully we are right opposite the media centre, so won't have to go far to get some attention.
Paul

Tom said...

I agree. What will they do if we just all get into the boat and drift along in front of the reedbeds?
Maybe they have a sub patrolling the canal with tiny torpedos.
I'm sending my hillier letter off tomorrow.
Tom

Anonymous said...
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Meagan said...

Please tell this is not true! Its a joke isnt it? They cant do this to us again. We have every right to use our river and cycle to work along the towpath. How can they just decide we are terrorists and close it?
Meg

Anonymous said...
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Matt said...

And then today the new missive from the so-called community department comes with news about the terrible catering centre. One big macdonalds no doubt!
I think we should attend this meeting and start shouting very LOUDLY about how badly they are treating us!
Matt

Fiona said...

NO WAY MAN! They CANNOT close the river man! What next? Are they gonna tell us to all move out cos we can catupult eggs over the fence?
Where does it stop? Where will the 'security buffer stop? Will they get the Trowbridge lot to stay in doors as well?
No Way!
Fi

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Just checked. They cannot chuck us out of the garden unless there is a 'credible terrorist threat', but they can stop boating and towpathing - only with BW say-so.
M

Tony said...

M, I don't think we should be complacent. We thought they could never take away Arena Filds, and yet they still managed to do that. I still think we should keep up the pressure.
Tony

Anonymous said...

The Olympics is not about human rights, don't you remember your message to Jacques Roegge and the response it got? Nevertheless it's important to make sure that the Olympics movement gets reminded of the Olympic Charter that allows them to get away with everything.

And remember you're not the only ones who are being taken to the cleaners:
http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/itemlist/category/182-playfair

Gregory said...

Is there any way we could stage a sit-down on the towpath? Surely we could get thousands of Wickers to simply ignore the olympics and just sit all along the towpath? I'd be up for it.
Greg

Anonymous said...

It's simple if you are on the towpath or the river in a boat, you will get arrested. I personally wish you all the best in your protests. But don't expect to spend the olympics outside of a cell.

Anonymous said...

I'd be up for a sit down. Even more of a statement if it was naked.