City of London to take legal action over protest camp at St Paul’s

The planning and transportation committee of the City of London Corporation has voted to take legal action in a bid to clear more than 200 tents from public highways around St Paul’s Cathedral.

The City of London Corporation is the highways authority for the Square Mile business district. The protesters are from the Occupy London Stock Exchange campaign.

Michael Welbank, the elected Member who chaired the committee as its Deputy Chairman, said: “Protest is an essential right in a democracy – but camping on the highway is not and we believe we will have a strong highways case because an encampment on a busy thoroughfare clearly impacts the rights of others.”

Stuart Fraser, the City of London Corporation’s Chairman of Policy and Resources, added: “We have no problem with a peaceable 24-hour protest by people without tents – provided the highway is fully usable – but campsites and important highways don’t mix.”

Before taking its decision, the committee received a report outlining how Article 10 (the right to freedom of expression) and Article 11 (the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association) of the European Convention on Human Rights were being used in English law.

The report also set out how action had previously been taken against campers in Parliament Square.

The formal decision taken by the committee was as follows:

• “To commence proceedings to remove the encampment on the grounds that the encampment constitutes an unreasonable user [sic] of the highway and/or on such grounds as may be advised.
• In the event the factual circumstances relating to the obstruction of the highway change from those set out in the report before proceedings are commenced, but the encampment remains, that the Committee delegates to the Town Clerk and Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, the decision whether to commence proceedings.
• That a further report be submitted to the Committee on the outcome of the legal proceedings and prior to any enforcement action being taken.”