Campaigners staging demonstration outside town hall tonight (From Epsom Guardian)

Campaigners staging demonstration outside Wandsworth Town Hall tonight

2:30pm Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News By Alexandra Rucki

Campaigners are staging a demonstration outside the town hall tonight calling attention to the sale of school playing fields.#

The demo is taking place ahead of the council's finance and corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee meeting, at which councillors are due to rubber stamp the sale of fields in Elliott School, Putney.

Members of Wandsworth Against Cuts (WAC), the GMB union and the Save Elliott School campaign are joining forces to rally against the decision.

If the plans go ahead the school will become Ark Putney Academy, with five acres of playing fields being sold to potential developers.

WAC is also campaigning against plans to run library services as a trust, cuts to school crossing patrols and cutting staff from adventure playgrounds.

A WAC spokesperson said: "How can they talk of a lasting [Olympic] legacy, when our young people face a future of fewer and fewer places of play and interest, and public services continuing to be cut.

"Also, with enforced privatisations, the wealth is becoming increasingly unevenly distributed, with the rest of us being priced out.

"Current policy will probably increase the likelihood of future riots that we witnessed a year ago in Clapham Junction, and other deprived areas."

The demonstration is taking place outside Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, from 6.30pm.