Video: Squatters move in to occupy prominent York site – and demand it is given back to city residents

Squatters have moved in to occupy a site next door to York Barbican Centre.

They are living on an area of undeveloped land on Paragon Street.

The group have renamed the site the Barbican Community Centre, and draped banners around the area saying ‘Cut Off Rent Your Money Is Better Spent’ and ‘Rewild York.’

They have been backed by June Tranmer of the Redfearn Community Group in Fishergate too.

The group is demanding that the land, left undeveloped for 15 years, is given back to the people of the city.

One of the squatters is Patrick Thelwell. He told YorkMix the site had effectively been abandoned after the swimming pool was demolished.

“They went through the process of asking everybody, what kind of new swimming pool would you like to build here?

“And then they went, ‘Psych! We’re selling it to property developers’, and they have just sat on the land for the last 15 years.

“They had planning permission to build over 200 student flats, another five storey block of housing right there, so they can exploit foreign students coming to stay here.

“And we’re basically here just to say no, because that’s not what the people of York wants. We don’t want more student housing. We don’t need more developments like that when there’s a lack of social housing. When there’s a lack of green spaces.”

Community woodland

The group have been visited by the police but he said they weren’t trespassing. “What we’re doing here is we’re squatting. So what we’re doing here is completely legal, because we have squatters rights for now in this country.

“There’s someone here permanently 24-7. We’re cleaning up the site – the amount of rubbish that we’ve cleaned out is amazing. But what’s more amazing is the way that this site has been rewilding itself over the last 15 years undisturbed.”

He called on City of York Council to take buy the land back on a compulsory purchase order, and hand the land over to them officially.

“They should buy the land back for £1, that’s what I reckon’s a fair price, and give it back to the community. They get a community woodland, we’re going to turn it into a community allotment, we’re going to turn it into a community cafe, community library, we’re going to be providing for local residents.

“It’s going to be accessible to everybody. And I think that’s what people want to see at this time.”

He said they didn’t need to force entry to the site because a door was hanging off its hinges – a sign of the general neglect.

The group would stay on the site “as long as we can”.

If they are taken to the High Court for eviction “I’m going to argue that we are claiming adverse possession for this site, because it’s been occupied for ten years, not by me personally, but the people of York have been occupying this site for ten years, and therefore this land should revert to the commons”.

Resident’s group backs squatters aims

A group of residents living in the Fishergate area says they back the squatters and they wanted to put forward a suggestion about this piece of land that has been lying unused for so many years now, since Landowner Persimmon got permission to build homes there.

June Tranmer of the Redfearn Community Group told YorkMix:

“We have been working on making our area (between Heslington Road and Wellington Street) more attractive and greener, with planters on Wellington Street and plants along the alleyways and in front of some houses.

“We are severely lacking in trees in our neighbourhood – the only ones are those inside the fencing by the hotel, along Paragon Street and along the city walls nearby. We would dearly love a small public park space to be included whenever this parcel of land becomes developed.

“As there have been recent developments regarding a request for the whole area to be turned into a public space – we would like to say that we support that suggestion and would like to see any move by councillors and officers in that direction.”