After 6 months of occupation, the squatted Nursery Social Centre in Birmingham is to be voluntarily vacated by the occupying Collective, after they convinced the council to hand over the building to a community project [see report].

After resisting three eviction attempts [video] [pics] the Collective have agreed to move on to pastures new on the condition that the building be returned to social use by the council. The Collective felt, along with local people, that the building should not be left empty again. Birmingham City Council has finally arranged for the RITE Project (which works with young people excluded from the education system) to use the building until 2006. The building is then due to be demolished, pending a public enquiry, as part of the controversial Bristol Road expansion. The Collective are keen to point out that the social use of the building would not be on the council agenda if they had not taken Direct Action, highlighting the misuse of public buildings by local authorities.

Meanwhile the fight in London to return St. George's Theatre in Tuffnel Park to community use contines [see Latest Updates].

See also Indymedia Free Spaces Section