Southend: Occupy Protest Comes To Town

20th February 2012, 16:05

Members of the Occupy movement against capitalism and corporare greed have set up camp in a village churchyard in Southend.

Six tents were pitched in the churchyard at St Mary the Virgin church in Prittlewell on Sunday.

The protesters do not have permission to be there but said "we're in it for the long-haul".

Neil Starky, a campaigner for Occupy Southend, said 30 people had been involved in setting up the camp and numbers would rise and fall as the protest went on.

He added: "We are expecting about eight people to camp tonight. We're not encouraging individuals to stay for too long because of the cold weather but, as a group, we have a plan to be here until summer.

"We are all from Southend and we struggled to find anywhere else locally to go - if we had set up in a public highway we would have been moved on by police.

"But we are conscious of the sensitivities of setting up in a churchyard, particularly with the situation at St Paul's. We are not camping on any graves and we have sectioned off areas where people are buried or where ashes have been scattered, so we don't encroach on that."

Mr Starky that if the group was asked to move on, it would be put to a vote. But he added that he doubted the group would go.

In a statement, the Diocese of Chelmsford said: "The Occupy movement has been raising important questions about the sort of society people want to live in. We do want to listen to what they have to say.

"We ask them to be mindful of the fact that they are in a churchyard and to be sensitive to people's feelings."

Essex Police and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council said it was up to the church to decide whether to take action to clear the site.