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News from OCSET

richarddirecttv | 08.07.2004 14:54 | Free Spaces | Oxford

OCSET, Oxford's project for a social centre, has been given a £10,000 grant to rent premises, and the search continues for suitable spaces.

Members of the OCSET collective met last night (7th July). We are currently looking for a suitable space in Oxford to RENT so as to be able to do things we cannot set up in squatted spaces, such as the indymedia-run media centre. Currently, we have an application in with East Oxford Community Association to rent the ex-Claimants' Union space at EOCC. Attached here are the application and the covering letter to EOCA. We are one of several applicants, and the latest news is that the decision on who gets it has been postponed until the next EOCA Management Committee (date tbc).

Meanwhile, we have made contact with the organisers of the old Photographer's Workshop (103-104 St Marys Road). Currently the space is used by Asian young people, and they were extremely welcoming to OCSET for us to use the space for screenings and community cafes. As so many people are away during July, we decided last night that we would delay putting on a cafe / screening until August. It is a great space, and we're very grateful to the organisers for letting us use it.

We are continuing to investigate spaces available for rent. The EOCC space, at only £300 a month all in, is ideal in enabling us to rent for at least a couple of years, and probably longer. A commercial rent for a property is likely to be too expensive for us to be sustainable, although we are looking at all possiblities. But ideally, we're looking for some kind of less-than-full-commercial-rent deal on a space that will be empty for some time.

DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANYWHERE?

If so, please e-mail OCSET.

Bye for now.

WATCH FOR THIS SPACE!

richarddirecttv
- e-mail: oxfordsocial@linuxmail.org

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

keep squatting - please!

09.07.2004 11:06

while i understand you desire for stability and security, squatting is free as in freedom. once you start paying rent, dealing with the authorities on rates, taxes, insurance etc, any project you run will have to make money in order to maintain the finances required for rent. this means selling beer (need a licence) or charing for events which makes what you are doing little different from every other commercial venture and no longer a challange to the system. please continue squatting. i know you've had a run of bad luck with squats being evicted quickly but you might hit a luck building yet. look at what happens to longer term projects anyway - energy fads, people move on and enthusiasum goes.

stop the rot
squat the lot

k


seconded

09.07.2004 11:40

In total agreement with K, keep outside of rent, land lords, tax etc you'll end up taking part in a load of things your meant to be against, and showing alternatives to. Yeah squatts are v time consuming but are you sure renting somewhere would be any less so? The semi permenance of it at least meant that it travelled throughout the community..

Keep squatting

x

_


OCSET will still squat

12.07.2004 13:47

Just a quick clarification in response to the comments above. The intention is that OCSET will carry on squatting. The purpose of the rented space is not to substitute for the squats, but to enable some projects which are impossible to set up in the rapid turnover squatting situation which exists in Oxford, like the media centre, which needs a broadband connection and a certain amount of security for the gear.

richarddirecttv