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Squatters evicted as university wins fight
SQUATTERS have been evicted from a disused Sheffield University property in Broomhill after a six-day occupation.
Activists occupied Pisgah House, a listed building formerly used by the university's music department, which is next to gardens at the centre of a lengthy planning row.
They renamed the house the Sheffield Social Centre and used it as the base for a series of events, including bicycle repair classes, a climate camp benefit gig, computer sessions and a direct action workshop.
But university officials managed to gain an emergency injunction to repossess the building, off Crookes Road.
Pisgah House had been empty for several months, and the Broomhill Action Neighbourhood Group is currently exploring whether residents in the area may be able to set up a co-operative to buy it. The adjoining land, previously used as experimental gardens by the university, has been at the centre of a lengthy planning wrangle, with the university's plans for a substantial residential development having been rejected last year.
The squatters moved out of Pisgah House yesterday and moved instead into a former NHS property on Northumberland Road, Broomhill.
"People in this area are fully in support of this building being turned over for community use," a spokesman for the group said.
"It is ridiculous it is standing empty and idle when there is so little space available for community use."
A Sheffield University spokeswoman said Pisgah House was currently not in use and was part of a programme to dispose of older outlying properties.
"The university applied for a claim of possession at Sheffield County Court on the grounds of trespass. While the university supports the democratic process and open discussion of ideas, it cannot allow for illegal actions to hamper its ongoing legitimate business or the views of one group to impede the activities of others.
"We regret the fact that at a time of cost savings, valuable university funds were required to take legal measures to address such actions."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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