Keep off the grass: minister bans Hyde Park war protest ====================================== Jamie Wilson Wednesday January 29, 2003 The Guardian
Organisers of a massive stop the war rally yesterday vowed that it would go ahead despite a decision by the culture secretary to ban the event from London's Hyde Park.
A spokeswoman for the Stop The War Coalition said it would vigorously contest the decision, taken with the direct authority of Tessa Jowell, to outlaw the event on health and safety grounds.
The manager of the royal parks, Steve Edwards, wrote to the STWC on Monday to say that an emergency liaison team had decided that Hyde Park was not a suitable site for a rally at this time of year because of the condition of the ground and the number of people involved.
But a spokeswoman for the STWC, which expects that about 500,000 people will attend the February 15 event, said it was a direct attack on the right to demonstrate and a denial of freedom of speech. "This is the most important issue facing people in the world today. We are not going to accept this," the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for Department of Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that the decision to ban the rally from the park had been approved by Ms Jowell after the Royal Parks Authority checked to make sure she was happy with it.
"The fact is no rallies of any size are allowed in the royal parks at this time of year," the spokesman said. "As anybody with a garden knows, the grass is completely waterlogged and if you have 100,000 people milling about it will become a swamp. It is not just about the cost of repair, but also the health and safety of the people who are there, especially as the rally is likely to finish after dark."
The London event is one of 33 planned in cities across the world for the same day.
-- marc sfs> http://qcsfs.tripod.com
one power.. is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust.. lf there is a country which has committed unspeakable atrocities, it is the United States of America -Mandela