Occupy Morlands - protestors move into derelict factory in Glastonbury

A group of people operating under the umbrella of "Common Culture Collective" have within the past few days moved onto and are squatting the old Avalon Plastics factory site on the Morlands estate on the outskirts of Glastonbury.

While some locals view the group as scroungers, these are in fact the very people who were instrumental in ensuring that this was the best Frost Fayre Glastonbury has ever seen and they put a lot of time and effort into arranging things: helping with security and traffic control; playing music; lending their horses for the kids rides to the grotto and building the grotto; and having cleared up after the Frost Fayre finished on Saturday evening they moved onto this site.

As they were possibly facing eviction this morning I decided to pop down and have a chat, and they're a really amicable bunch, upbeat, jovial and enthusiastic they told me they are just looking to create an alternative feasting space for the Christmas/New Year period and use the building for community activism, a cafe and garden as well as a site for horse drawn vehicles.  If possible they'd like to create a healing area, hold parties and they seem to have plenty of other ideas too.  They say that they want to provide healthy fresh food rather than the prepackaged plastic food that is sold in supermarkets, and are currently building a pizza oven.  They are also working hard at tidying up the place.

One of them, Dave said to me that contrary to rumours they didn't actually break in.  "It was quite straightforward really" he said "Some workmen here left the combination lock open with the number clearly visible as they worked on site; I just made a note of it.  When the time was right we unlocked the combination and we were in".  He then showed me the undamaged lock which was open and quite clearly showed the (not very hard to crack) combination.  Of course the occupiers have now replaced this padlock and chain with their own much more substantial one!

Despite the fear of eviction very little happened this morning, it was a fairly quiet morning.  A few Glastonbury locals had turned up to show solidarity and stand around the burning brazier.  Outside a solitary bailiff drove slowly past shortly after I arrived, and about an hour or so later a police officer and gypsy liaison officer arrived for a brief and light-hearted chat through the fence about the situation, before they too departed.

The site has been derelict since Avalon Plastics moved their factory a few yards up the road to their swanky new premises, and this is now the site for a proposed new Tesco supermarket that has divided local opinion.   

While the old factory buildings will be demolished in order to build the new store, this rabbit's warren that has been left to rot and has been vandalised and stripped of equipment by thieves could be used to provide welcome respite from the elements (it was very cold and snowing heavily this morning) for the group of humans and animals over the Festive Period.  And as Tesco managed to avoid paying a £140,000 Section 106 agreement for the benefit of Glastonbury and Street when the revised planning proposals were passed by Mendip District Council's planning officers at the end of August; a bit of festive spirit in allowing these people to stay for a few weeks is a small price to pay!

If you'd like to lend some support then pop down and say hello, and as they are trying to improve the site any donations of brooms; hammers; nails; gloves; dust masks; rubble sacks; plastic sheeting to fix leaks and bubble wrap for insulation are all on their Christmas wish list!