Star date: 14th August 2015

MANCHESTER COUNCIL DEMOLISHES ST ANN'S SQUARE HOMELESS CAMP – THEN DISINFECTS PAVEMENTS

The Manchester Homeless Camp was evicted from St Ann's Square this morning, with Manchester Council workers piling tents and groundsheets into refuse wagons before symbolically disinfecting the Square once the homeless people had gone.

Using a loophole in the eviction court order, two tents have now set up in King Street, near to the shop once occupied by rights protester Emmeline Pankhurst.

Full details here...

This morning, despite the downpour, Manchester City Council evicted the Homeless Camp from St Ann's Square, piling tents, groundsheets and belongings into refuse wagons.

"The Council came and told us that we had to move, and we agreed to do so peacefully" said Wes from the Camp "Then the rain started to get really heavy so we spoke to the police and they said they'll try and sort something out as it wasn't fair to move us in the rain. Half an hour later they came back and the Council started ripping the tents up and shoving them in the back of bin wagons."

Once the protesters left, Council workmen arrived and began disinfecting the Square, including the pavements and benches – in what many would see as a highly symbolic gesture of social cleansing.

Within minutes of the final eviction, the two remaining tents from the Camp were re-erected in King Street, near to where radical rights campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst had a shop at number 30 in the early 20th Century.

The new Camp took advantage of the order that DistrIct Judge Matharu made two weeks ago, which forbids people from `erecting and/or occupying tents or other moveable temporary forms of accommodation for the purposes of or in connection with protests or similar events arising from or connected with the Claimant's [Manchester City Council's] homeless policy on land'.

"The order covers any tents or protests about the Council's homeless policy but we're not protesting about that any more" explained Wes "These are just homeless people on the streets, so what are they going to do now? We'll stay here until they evict us but what can they arrest us for? We're not protesting any more."

This afternoon, police were keeping a watch on the new Camp, while Council officials left to decide what to do next...

• The new Camp members are urging people to bring sleeping bags, tents and clothes down to the King Street site.