Activists occupying University land resisted attempts to evict them yesterday.

Bailiffs arrived at 6 Grosvenor Mount in Headingley to remove members of Leeds Community Project, but protesters reportedly refused to talk to them.

Leeds CP posted, ‘Bailiffs arrive with University security to wonderful singing. Police arrive shortly after as they’d heard there was some wonderful singing on offer. Unfortunately the doors were shut’.

The group regained entry to the site shortly after being removed in February, when Police arrested and later released three protesters on suspicion of abstracting electricity.

An online petition supporting Leeds Community Project’s occupation of 6 Grosvenor Mount has attracted over 1,000 signatures.

Activists are occupying the land in protest of the University’s plans to sell it for the development of housing. They argue that the site holds alternative possibilities as a space for food growing, wildlife conservation and social events.

The University was granted planning permission to build seven new houses on the disused site in 2013. It was formerly used as a botanical gardens and research facility.

The University is currently taking legal action in a bid to regain possession of the land.

Charlotte Mason

Image courtesy of Leeds Community Project