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Occupy Sheffield protesters call off Cathedral camp
End of protest: Occupy Sheffield at the Cathedral.
OCCUPY Sheffield protesters say their demonstration will end tomorrow - as court documents show the camp could have potentially cost Sheffield Cathedral an estimated £100,000.
The camp, which set up on the cathedral forecourt in November, yesterday said on Twitter it was ‘closing down’ this Saturday after a meeting.
A trial to decide whether protesters could be evicted has been set to start on February 21.
In a court statement seen by The Star, the Dean of Sheffield Rev Peter Bradley said lost income from cancelled events and activities affected by the protest totalled an estimated £65,000 - before anticipated legal costs would potentially have increased that to around £100,000. Staff resources used were not included.
The dean’s statement also detailed how protesters had ‘interrupted’ worships, once by a woman who shouted ‘foul abuse’ in ‘blasphemous rants’ to a horrified congregation on Sunday, December 4.
Occupy protesters are said to be staging their demonstration in opposition to the country’s current economic system, corporate greed, funding cuts and climate change.
A member of the camp, who gave his name only as Moose, told The Star: “It is unfortunate the cathedral and Occupy are having a bit of an argument and what we’re trying to do is keep on good terms with the cathedral.”
He described the campers’ planned move from the cathedral forecourt as a ‘tactical withdrawal’ - but said the Occupy movement in Sheffield would continue to highlight the issues it stood for.
An official camp statement is expected today.
Sheffield Cathedral has urged the protesters to leave to make way for a development project.
The cathedral said it had been liaising with Occupy and was ‘hopeful’ the group would go this weekend.
A spokesman added: “We now need to give them time to sort their exit among themselves. They have until 4pm on Monday.
“In our submissions to the court we have been obliged to recount in detail some distressing incidents.
“However we do not want past incidents to undermine the positive nature of current discussions or to affect what we are all working towards - a peaceful and respectful conclusion to the protest.
“We have sympathies with many of the issues the Occupy movement raises and will continue to engage in active discussions.”
Timeline
November 5 - Occupy Sheffield set up in the cathedral courtyard
November 8 - The camp is warned to be ‘peaceful’ although the dean says the cathedral respects the right to protest
December 5 - Very Rev Peter Bradley called on Occupy Sheffield to leave
December 8 - Protesters insist they have no immediate plans to leave. A 600-strong petition in support of the camp is presented to Sheffield Council
December 10 - Very Rev Peter Bradley writes to city banks for fear of losing support for church projects
December 24 - Protesters say they could stay at their camp until next Christmas
December 29 - Occupy Sheffield ‘take possession’ of the old Salvation Army Citadel in Sheffield
January 5 - Cathedral chiefs issue a final appeal for Occupy to leave peacefully within a week
January 13 - The cathedral begins legal action
January 19 - Protesters squatting in the Citadel reach agreement with the landlords to leave on February 21
January 26 - A court hearing decides a two day trial will take place to rule on the cathedral’s possession order
February 9 – The cathedral says it is ‘hopeful’ protesters will leave and Occupy Sheffield says it is ‘closing down’ camp this weekend
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 25 comments to this article
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Juneab
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:33 AMThis ridicules campaign by the Green Party pretending to be " Occupy Sheffield " has shown that there is absolutely no intrest or support in the bizarre views of these clowns. They leave totally defeated and humiliated.
aston
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 06:47 PMi see its getting colder, i wonder why they are packing up ....
Los Blancos Galactico Rossoneri Mancunian
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:23 PMOccupy Sheffield are a waste of space and got nothing better to do with their life!
George1916
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 09:14 AMI don't care, I'm not sure who I dislike most, the hypocrits protesting or the hypocritical church.
1graybags
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 06:59 PM19 Lenny as per other story and yr comment - the banks F-'d up royally, but before the world downturn financial institutions in the UK paid £53b in tax - that pays for armed forces and courts and police. If these thick no-marks cathedral dwellers want to protest about anything they should consider the £163 Brown and Liebour borrowed during the boom years 2003-08 when we should have put money aside. And lets not forget the public sector dinosaur Liebour created that is now a cancer eating away at hard working tax payers.
Sheffielderinthesouth
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:59 PM"Moose". Typical idiots. I'm sure his friends "flower" "sunbeam" and "braindead" are all their too. The great unwashed who have never worked and therefore have enough time on their hands to sit in a tent for nearly 3 months. What have they achieved? Nothing. What will they achieve? Nothing. Go and find some poor persons house to squat in and leave the rest of the hardworking people in Sheffield alone to go about their faily business in peace! Good riddance!
LennyU
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:11 PMCreate a rubbish dump outside "our" cathedral. Very interesting opening gambit. A rubbish dump: a piece of land where rubbish is dumped. Strange but I do detect LESS rubbish around the cathedral than in other areas of the city. Actually those concerned about waste ought to take a moment of time to consider the amount of waste in and around Sheffield BEFORE the word "Occupy" became a world wide term. In addition I do hope that those who talk about rubbish are actually practising an environmentally friendly waste policy and recycling as much as possible, so items are not incinerated or thrown into a landfill-site. I am pleased to hear that a concerned individual is worried about costs to tax-payers.....such as the £1.14 trillion spent on bailing out banks?? Something to be considered when reflecting in a faux sardonic manner about the occupy camp outside the cathedral. The notion that possible cleansing costs for this site will affect the livelihood of "some council employee" [such as a councillor???] is patently absurd. What are the cost of the removal of canine excrement or chewing gum or hydrogenated fat in drains????? I suggest that a 5 minute walk to the Town Hall is the order of the day: with the sole intension of asking the leader of the council about £50 millions in cuts. This will provide a far suitable, wide-reaching and rational answer to a worried tax payer of the city.
Sir Taxedalot
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 02:25 PM#13 Well said. Intellectual protest and argument is wasted on what someone recently correctly described as Sheffield's loony left wing trolls. They simply don't understand the notion that something can be gained by working for it. If it isn't handed out for free they fail to comprehend the worth of it. Occupy were always doomed to fail in this intellect free zone.
alchemist2k12
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:49 PM#15, you have shown a seemingly standard response from the occupy supporters, lets attack the church instead of the banks. Well done :)
alchemist2k12
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:47 PMI think the point that all the supporters of the occupation of Sheffield Cathedral are missing is that there wouldnt have been this bad feeling towards them if they had done a few simple things. 1. Not pitched up uninvited on the cathedral forecourt when the protest was supposed to be about banks 2 Moved when the cathedral asked them to instead of attacking the cathedral and its staff at every opportunity 3 Actually DID some protesting instead of hiding in tents and then eventually just leaving the tents unoccupied Occupy could have been a useful movement if some thought, organisation and actual gumption had been put into it
dromedary
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:44 PMCongratulations to Occupy Sheffield for showing up the Church to be just another money making organisation and far from what it was originally intended to be. . . . .I would love to see the Cathedral accounts to find out just what the supposed lost money would have actually been spent on. . . . Matthew 5:5 and 19:24 comes to mind.."Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the world" and "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." . . . Something for the clergy to think about when counting the cash.
seenitall
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:24 PMSo ,#13, you think that this, the City of radicalism and syndicalism needs a lesson from a bunch of anarchists on the evils of capitalism.? Like several others you perhaps could devote a little more of your time to reading... widely... and then, perhaps, you might understand that we have a long and proud history of fighting just causes and not creating rubbish dumps outside of our Cathedral!
MTBSheffield
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:06 PMI would like to say a big thank you to the protestros for hgihlighting the dark side of capitalism. Their message and meaning is wasted and lost upon the vacant apathetic Sheffield public who are more inclinded to complain about , that dress they bought, their service at McDonalds, the price of petrol, the weather, than complain about the people who are running and ruining this country.
kayte
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:47 PMHallelujah - praise the Lord! (For sending ice, snow and freezing weather to send the morons home.)
Tawny
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:33 PMJust what has this bunch of drop outs actually achieved other than create a rubbish dump outside our cathedral? I do hope that these wastes of space are now going to provide the money to pay for clearing up their 'camp' and all the losses incurred by the cathedral. . . . No, I thought not. Leave it up to the tax payers to pay for. Presumably the cost of such could affect the livelihood of some council employee - well done at wasting our money and potentially putting another out of work. What a great achievement!
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