Press+-+Haringey+Independent+-+Campaign+poster+sabotaged

=Campaign poster sabotaged= Elizabeth Pears - Haringey Independent (Wednesday 23rd July 2008)


 * A billboard paid for by the community group hoping to save Wards Corner from developers has been sabotaged.

The campaign posters which cost £560, paid for by the Wards Corner Community Coalition (WCC), were intendend to run for a fortnight starting on July 17.

Its message, displayed on the Wards building next to Seven Sisters Tube station, reads: "If Haringey Council approves the plan to demolish these buildings, it would completely destroy a thriving local community." But in the early hours of the morning, the posters were covered up and its message blocked out. || || Lagu Sukumaran, who owns a business on West Green Road, said: "Whoever did this must have done so early this morning because the glue is still wet. It was definitely a professional job because the message was not just painted over but completely postered over."

The coalition are planning to report the incident to the police and request that CCTV footage is looked at in a bid to identify the culprits.

Council planning officers are expected to make a decision on an application submitted by Grainger, a property development company this Thursday.

Grainger’s plans to bulldoze the site to make way for luxury flats and a high-end shopping arcade would force the closure of the Latin American market. The WCC have run a long campaign against the proposals.

Roy Jose, a member of the WCC, said: "Whoever did this does not want us to get our message across. The extent of the sabotage just shows that someone out there is really rattled by what we are saying.

"But their attempts to silence our message has worked in our favour because now everybody can see they are worried."

Several members of the community coalition had reported seeing David Walters, development director at Grainger’s, staring at the sign and talking on his mobile yesterday.

A spokesman for the company said: "Grainger did not remove the poster. "To do so would be illegal and the company does not have that kind of jurisdiction. Any rumours that suggest otherwise are completely unfounded."