Now activists target Olympic basketball site
PROTESTERS linked to the long-running St Paul’s demonstration have set up camp in an Olympic construction site, stopping work on the basketball training ground.
Ten to 15 campaigners, some of whom camped at St Paul’s Cathedral as part of the Occupy movement, have pitched tents on the Leyton Marsh site, stopping construction work. It follows a demonstration by around 200 people on Saturday.
The Olympic Delivery Authority insisted the structure will be removed soon after the end of the Games without lasting damage to the land but yesterday protesters threatened to take over sites, saying: “This is just the beginning,”.
The Occupy movement suffered a symbolic blow last month when its tented camp was finally cleared from outside St Paul’s Cathedral.
Activists retain a presence at smaller sites in London and are expected to use the Olympics to step up their campaign against coalition austerity plans and what they claim is a lack of accountability in the City.
Len McCluskey of trade union Unite has also said workers should consider disrupting the Games as a protest against the planned slowdown of public spending.
Last night a spokesman for the ODA said: “The basketball training venue is a temporary structure that will be removed within a month of the end of the Games, and the land restored to its previous state. The vast majority of Leyton Marsh is completely unaffected… We regret that action has been taken which has delayed work on the site.”