Westgate Demo Photos

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" Press release to follow...

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- Homepage:  http://westgatewatch.wordpress.com "

For Immediate Release - 29th March 2008

Campaigners Celebrate Westgate Delay With Street Party Protest

Campaigners took a pirate ship, a dozen inflatable sharks and a samba
band into the Westgate Shopping Centre today to celebrate a significant setback
for its planned expansion. Building work on the expanded Westgate -
which Oxford residents say will increase traffic, flooding and greenhouse
gas emissions - has been postponed until 2009.

Local campaigners drew large crowds on Cornmarket and around (and inside)
the Westgate Centre with the musical stunt, which had a watery theme to
raise awareness of the flooding risk to neighbourhoods in West and South
Oxford. They launched a new petition, calling for a full Environment
Agency flooding assessment for the expansion plans. The campaigners were
also distributing a "Real Consultation" document, to find out
what Oxford residents really want to see in the middle of their city.

The protest had a fun and friendly air - a pair of pirates sailed around
the City Centre in a home-made boat as campaigners asked the crowd to
"stop the Westgate pirates from sinking Oxford". There was
only one unpleasant moment, when a security guard threatened to smash a
photographer's camera. The guard was reported to the Westgate Centre
manager.

One of the campaigners, Jess Worth,said "We're in the Centre today
to start doing the consultation that the City Council failed to do. We're
asking Oxford residents what they want to see on this site - ninety
new chain stores, or an eco-friendly development with affordable homes, a
bus station, a marketplace and public green spaces?"

According to the Westgate Partnership, building work has been postponed
because a public enquiry into the demolition of Abbey Place, a street of
sheltered accommodation, won't make its ruling on the legality of the
plans until May 2008. However,the Partnership have not yet explained why
this requires a delay until 2009.

Danny Chivers, a local resident and a member of the Oxford Against
Westgate Expansion (OAWE) campaign, said: "This is great news- every month
that the scheme is delayed gives Oxford residents more time to raise
awareness about how bad the current plans are, and to put together some
saner alternatives. It's outrageous that they started felling trees in
January when the public enquiry hadn't given them the final
go-ahead.Perhaps now they've realised that the many problems with the
scheme - that have been highlighted by our campaign - aren't going to go
away and need to be taken seriously."

ENDS

Notes for editors:

* A full briefing, "What's Wrong With The Westgate Expansion",
is available at
 http://westgatewatch.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/whats_wrong_with_westgate.pdf

* For interviews and more information,contact
 oxfordagainstwestgate@activist.com

Check out www.carnivalofculture.org.uk for all the latest on Lancaster residents' battle to oppose destructive developments in and around their city, not least the plan by Centros Miller to construct a second city centre on the edge of the city, with an extra 60%, yes sixty percent, retail space. Of course, there is also a 250 year lease and the privatisation of public space....Google the new economics foundation for a good summary of the effects of these developments, under 'ghost town' or 'clone town'...The consultations done by Centros in lancaster were horribly skewed (e.g. one of the 'antis' was stopped in the street and asked what they would like to see in Lancaster, when they said a diversity of small, locally owned shops, this was recorded as 'more choice', i.e. added as support of the proposal!!), and the Green Party, along with campaign group It's Our City, are suggesting the Council look at alternative development ideas, such as small shop units for local businesses and artists, more affordable housing (we're suffering a plague of expensive ugly yuppy flats in tourist locations) and green space. Sound familiar?