Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Oriental City shopkeepers protest

I've heard that shopkeepers from Oriental City in Colindale staged a peaceful protest at their local council offices (where the planning permission is being considered) today.

Will update with any news as I hear it. In the meantime, here's the background.

Update #1: The Guardian on the planned protest.

Update #2: Well it seems that a large group of shop owners from Oriental City staged a protest at the Brent Council town hall, which the local authority responsible for the Colindale site. Banners were on display calling for the protection of "the only Far East shopping centre" and "No to B&Q". Also present was Jabez Lam, tireless campaigner for the British Chinese community and all-round good guy, and I think the group was met by some council representatives. More details may appear on Jabez's website Min Quan at some point.

I don't know what stage the whole planning application is at but I hope not just that the shopkeepers' concerns are noted but also that we get some hard facts from the developers and the local council about what is really going to happen. It's so easy for rumours to be sparked off in these situations that spread like wildfire and turn out to not to be true after all.

A reminder that the official campaign homepage is here: http://groups.msn.com/SaveOrientalCityCampaign

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