Protesters have occupied a former Leeds University research site last week in an attempt to open up the space for the local community.

The organisation, known as Leeds Community Project, legally occupied 6 Grosvenor Mount last Friday. The site, which occupies one acre of land, contains seven glasshouses and is home to a range of established plants.

6 Grosvenor Mount is currently owned by the University but new plans will allow the land to be sold to a private investor with the intention of building new houses there.

Leeds Community Project opposes this sale and wishes to make efficient use of the land that will benefit the local community.

The protesters describe themselves as ‘a group of people who came together to create a community of resistance by reclaiming a site of unused land in Leeds’.

Speaking to The Gryphon, protesters explained,

‘We would like this to respond to the needs of the community and to be a safe place by being inclusive, self-aware, respectful and strongly rejecting any sort of discrimination’.

The protest was open to the public, with Leeds Community Project welcoming people to join them in reclaiming Grosvenor Mount.

A spokesperson for the University confirmed that it was seeking to regain possession of property and land at 6 Grosvenor Mount.

 

Lucy Connolly