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Trustee of St Paul's asks Occupy protestors to leave 3

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 24 Oct 2011

The Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, a trustee of the St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation, has asked the Occupy the London Stock Exchange protestors, who have been camping outside the cathedral for the past 16 days, to “withdraw peacefully”.

For around two weeks, protestors involved in the Occupy the London Stock Exchange (Occupy LSX) movement, which is campaigning against what it sees as worldwide “corporate greed” and the iniquities of the global economic system, have set up camp outside St Paul’s to raise awareness for their cause.

On Friday, Right Reverend Knowles, who is also Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, announced that the building would have to close due to health and safety issues linked to the protestors.

“The health, safety and fire officers have pointed out that access to and from the cathedral is seriously limited,” he said. “With so many stoves and fires and lots of different types of fuel around, there is a clear fire hazard. Then there is the public health aspect which speaks for itself. The dangers relate not just to cathedral staff and visitors but are a potential hazard to those encamped themselves,” he said.

It is the first time the cathedral has been closed since the Second World War, and church officials say it is costing St Paul's around £20,000 a day in lost visitor revenues.

A St Paul's spokeswoman told civilsociety.co.uk that a wedding was allowed to go ahead at the weekend as it involved under 100 people.

Church 'supports campaign aim'

In his statement, Right Reverend Knowles expressed sympathy for the movement, but asked the protestors to leave anyway:

“Some will rightly say that the Church should be alongside those seeking equality and financial probity. We are. The debate about a more just society is at the heart of much of our work at St Paul’s and indeed we hope to contribute to the wider debate in the very near future through a report from the St Paul’s Institute,” he said.

“But today is about our ability, practically, to carry on our mission with free and open access to this public space and treasured place and I hope that the protestors will understand the issues we are facing, recognise that their voice has been legitimately heard, and withdraw peacefully.”

According to the Guardian today church officials are consulting lawyers about how to remove the protest camps.

An Occupy LSX spokesman said the movement was disappointed that the cathedral had to close and insisted they had liaised with the fire brigade to ensure the camp was safe: 

“What outstanding issues there are appear to be concerned with, firstly, health and safety and, secondly, the cathedral’s commercial concerns. We seek clarification from the cathedral as to the precise nature of those health and safety concerns, so that we might address them directly. In the short space of time that we have been here, we have successfully liaised with the City authorities and outside bodies to coordinate recycling and sanitation.”

He added: “We believe the cathedral is also concerned about their visitor numbers. We have endeavoured to ensure that our schedule does not conflict with the cathedral’s, so that their normal operations are not impaired. Clearly, we have become another tourist attraction on the cathedral’s doorstep – but, since we are not a commercial concern, we are struggling to understand how we have had any financial impact on the cathedral’s revenues.”

Inspired by New York

The Occupy LSX movement is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, which describes itself as a leadership resistance movement representing the "99 per cent of people of many colors, genders and political persuasions, that will no longer tolerate greed and corruption of the 1 per cent".

The movement began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s financial district, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States.

The Occupy LXS movement is currently in two areas in London – St Paul’s and more recently Finsbury Square.

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