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Direct Action Against Nottingham City Cuts Budget

07-03-2011 20:24

On Monday March 7th, Nottingham City Council met to set it budget for 2011-12, slashing millions of pounds from vital services. Campaigners protested outside, occupied the viewing gallery and challenged council leader Jon Collins.

Protesters gathered in the Market Square from around 12.30pm and held a demonstration outside. Although probably slightly smaller than the demonstration in the same place the previous Saturday, the turnout was not awful for an lunchtime demo on a workday.

The plan had been to present a petition to the council calling on them not to implement cuts. However, when somebody went to reception to arrange for a councillor to take the petition, they were initially told nobody was available. This situation soon changed when it was explained that the press were outside waiting to record the handover and deputy leader Graham Chapman hurried down.

Protesters were then "honoured" by the presence of councillors Chapman, Hassan Ahmed, David Mellen and possibly a few others who went around glad-handing.

The meeting began at 2pm, as people went in and others drifted back to work after lunch, numbers did dwindle in the afternoon.

The meeting had been going on for about an hour when people began challenging the councillors, shouting from the galleries. The meeting was soon suspended. Campaigners were asked to leave, offered a meeting with the leader of the council provided they left immediately, an offer they refused.

Initially the matter was dealt with by council security, then some CPOs were sent in and eventually the police arrived. The galleries were cleared after about an hour and closed to the public so that the meeting could continue.

After the eviction, there was a constant guard on the door maintained by a combination of police and CPOs. After a number of people made enquiries about getting into the viewing galleries again, somebody decided to close the doors to the Council House.

A token presence remained outside the Council House, but protesters remained for a second push from 5pm, hoping to pick up anybody leaving work. Again numbers were disappointing and by about 6pm, people were beginning to drift off.

A number of rape alarms were thrown onto the balcony at the front of the Council House in the (probably vain) hope that they could be heard in the chamber.

The BBC arrived to do a report for the 6.30pm broadcast. When somebody from Notts SOS went to offer an interview the BBC refused and explained that they were only there to interview council leader Jon Collins.

Shortly thereafter, protesters realised that Collins was being interviewed on the other side of the square, just down from Speaker's Corner. People ran over and began shouting, almost immediately forcing the BBC to abandon its interview. Many of the campaigners remained to challenge Collins on his failure to stand up to the Tory-led government.

While many protesters were arguing with Collins, the BBC tried to do a piece-to-camera in front of the Council House, but, angered by the BBC's cowardly refusal to allow anti-cuts protesters to tell their side of the story, campaigners quickly disrupted this as well. This forced the BBC to retreat into the Council House, which precipitated the first of several attempts by campaigners to rush the doors.

After a while, Collins too retreated to the Council House. Campaigners continued shouting and chanting, making a particular effort when the BBC appeared on the balcony.

For some reason, at this point, Collins decided it would be a good idea to come out again. He walked over to where the interview had been and invited 2 homeless people into the Council House. Demonstrators spotted a rat, pointing out that Collins' supposed concern for these 2 gentlemen was a stark contrast to the many homeless people he was letting down by slashing the Supporting People budget, taking millions from charities like Framework.

When he tried to get back into the Council House, campaigners blocked the doors, leading to an extended exchange with the council leader. During this he claimed that he was fighting the cuts (this was received as might be expected) and intended to go on the March 26 demonstration.

Eventually he left the campaigners and returned to the Council House. At this point the police started hassling a kid who had allegedly made an offhand remark about "bombing" Jon Collins' house. When other protesters pointed out that this was harassment and that the police had no right to ask for his details, the police decided to take him to their van for questioning.

Inevitably, this attracted all the protesters who gathered outside the van, arguing with the assembled police officers until the kid was released. At this point, the protest came to an end at approximately 7.15pm.

While not as big as it should have been this was one of the most inspiring demonstrations in Nottingham for a long time. The council will almost inevitably pass their cuts budget, destroying services with all that entails. Nevertheless, they cannot now claim ignorance about how angry people are about what they're doing. Hopefully this will be at the front of their minds as the election approaches in May and when they come around to thinking about next year's budget.

We are not going to go away. This is only the beginning.

(Photos to follow.)