Campaigners return to academy site

By Tom Lawrence

Protesters have built a seven foot high blockade outside the Bridge Road Recreation Ground in a last gasp attempt to stop the Wembley Academy.
Workmen were due to turn up on the site today (Monday) and start building a number of temporary primary school classrooms.
But their lorries were unable to gain access after the activists piled up mounds of tyres, branches, concrete and barbed wire at one of the entrances.
An eyewitness said: "There were about four or five protesters building a seven foot blockade right on the driveway at the far end of the site.
"It was apparently where the lorries were going to come in. Some council staff came down and asked the protesters to leave but they refused."
The demonstrators, from the Grass Roots Association for Social Sport (GRASS), also set up tents on the site, when they moved in on Saturday (26) night.
It comes just a week after Brent Council ordered bailiffs to remove members of the Wembley Park Action Group, who had also set up camp on the sports grounds in a stand against the academy.
Sam Cole, from GRASS, said the latest wave of protest was an attempt to save the sports facilities at the site.
He said: "We are here to protect the playing fields as they are an affordable, accessible and inclusive public space for the people of Wembley to come to.
"We are hearing a lot about youth crime but this place is somewhere where kids can come and interact with each other through sports."
Mr Cole said the group would be staying indefinitely and invited all residents to come and show their support.
"All the decisions about the academy have been made in a very undemocratic way and local people are not being asked their views until decisions have been made.
"We are doing this for the people of Brent."
The local authority said it was taking legal advice about removing the protesters and hoped to have them evicted.