St Paul protesters vow to fight eviction

Anti-capitalist protesters who have been camped outside St Paul's Cathedral for a month must quit their tents Thursday or face High Court action, it was confirmed here.The City of London Corporation (which looks after the financial and banking district in the UK Capital) yesterday served a legal eviction notice on the activists which gives them until 6pm today to leave.But demonstrators, who tore down the notices as soon as they were posted, vowed they would stay and said they were prepared to fight a potentially lengthy legal battle, the organisers said.The corporation, the local authority which runs the Square Mile (this important area) , has expressed concern over "worrying trends" at the camp, including late-night drinking, and said companies near the cathedral had complained about losing business.Some of the tents are pitched on the footpath next to the shops surrounding the cathedral, with the remainder in the churchyard itself.A spokeswoman for the cathedral - which has ditched its own proposed legal action - said that it was looking for a "peaceful resolution" and said it had faced "challenges" since the camp was pitched a month ago.The corporation decided to resume legal action after two weeks of talks with protesters.Stuart Fraser, policy chairman of the corporation, said previously "We paused legal action for two weeks for talks with those in the camp on how to shrink the extent of the tents and to set a departure date - but got nowhere."So, sadly, now they've rejected a reasonable offer to let them stay until the new year, it's got to be the courts. "We'd still like to sort this without court action but from now on we will have to have any talks in parallel with court action, not instead." Naomi Colvin, an Occupy London spokeswoman, said "It is not something we need to be remotely worried about - we've been prepared for it for months. "If they want to get an order in the High Court, it could take months. We will contest it."We will be speaking to our legal team and we will be fighting it." She questioned the corporation's motives for asking the protesters to leave, adding "The area by the side of St Paul's Churchyard is not obviously in anyone's way - people move freely up and down it every day".