Once more, Occupy Liverpool reclaim a deactivated building, and once more highlight a clear and wanton practice, in these times of austerity, of commerce over community, profit over people. What will be the fate of the Old Rapid Paint Shop? Demolition, most likely, as our new landlords, Merepark, seek to expand & impress upon the fabric of Liverpool the cycle of consumption & more consumption, and the community in the middle be damned!

Interesting how concerned the property developers become, after years of building neglect, as soon as a group of individuals, with their own ideas of what these spaces should be used for, comes along and sees the hypocrisy in the dormancy of these buildings. Not using these buildings, for sometimes decades, in a City once again hardest hit by this ‘Great Recession’ is a disgrace!

Occupy Liverpool does not have all the answers, but it does have the capacity to act. For however long Occupy Liverpool holds the Old Rapid Paint Shop, along with Tinlings, we hope to raise concerns about spaces across the city that CAN & SHOULD be taken by the community, for their needs.

We should not wait to re-activate the usuable spaces greedily hoarded by the city's property developers; as communities of people we should be Occupying Liverpool.