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A Thursday afternoon at Maida Hill market sq. is stuffed with pensioners fortunately chatting and enjoying playing cards whereas having fun with the sunshine.
Nonetheless, over the previous 12 months the sq. has been on the centre of an ongoing row between a few of its regulars and Westminster council.
Final 12 months, Ernest Theophile, a 73-year-old black man who repeatedly performs dominoes with different locals within the space, was summoned to courtroom by the council and accused of being too noisy and inflicting a disturbance.
This resulted within the council initially being granted a particular injunction that banned social gatherings. Though the injunction was overturned shortly afterwards, Theophile and his associates might nonetheless face jail in the event that they breach a courtroom order by “enjoying loud amplified music, consuming alcohol and shouting and swearing”.
“The sq. is essential to me. I come right here nearly seven days every week,” stated Theophile. “I’ve grown up there all my life so I don’t know another. To me, it’s like house away from house.”
For Theophile, the sq. is a haven for older folks, primarily from a West Indian and minority ethnic background, to seek out firm and spend time with likeminded people. In line with Theophile, they don’t interact in delinquent behaviour corresponding to consuming, shouting or swearing. Fairly the primary function of their gatherings is to play dominoes with each other, a culturally vital pastime within the West Indian neighborhood.
“The loneliness was one of many largest elements as to why we gathered there. That’s why the sq. was very best for us,” Theophile stated. “Typically the youthful era come right here and congregate, however we simply need a spot the place we will socialise and play a number of video games to go the time.”
Theophile’s barrister has argued that the courtroom order, which threatened jail sentences, is “more likely to be not directly discriminatory”.
“An injunction restraining the actions of a minority of black folks in a public sq. the place there’s a theoretical energy of arrest and sanction of imprisonment is not directly discriminatory,” Tim James-Matthews advised Central London county courtroom.
Theophile believes that being taken to courtroom was “completely racially motivated”. He stated: “It’s as a result of it’s primarily teams of ethnic minorities who come right here, and that’s the explanation why I believe they wished us out.”
Though Westminster council have claimed that they’ve provided a free area the place dominoes might be performed, that is one thing which has been denied by Theophile and different locals.
Tony Edwards, who’s in his 60s and has been residing within the space for greater than half a century, agrees the sq. is solely a spot the place many individuals from the West Indian neighborhood come to “mingle and socialise”.
“I’m going to work, and after I end work, I come again right here to socialize,” he stated. “I’m right here on a regular basis, seven days every week.” He added: “All we do right here is play somewhat playing cards, somewhat dominoes. That’s all we do, we don’t bother anyone. We’re peaceable, we’re a household.”
Others say the truth that many pensioners use the sq. as a social hub is a results of a scarcity of neighborhood areas within the space. “We have now no the place else to go and collect,” stated Ashworth, a retired safety officer who repeatedly visits the sq.. “We solely actually have this place right here, the place we will sit outdoors and play somewhat dominoes, or somewhat backgammon too. We’ve been to the council so many occasions to ask them to provide us a spot, however we nonetheless solely have this sq..”
“The sq. is utilized by many various folks as a result of there’s nothing right here for anyone,” stated Jacqui Haynes, a neighborhood organiser primarily based in Maida Hill.
Haynes, who runs a meals financial institution primarily based in St Peter’s Church in Maida Hill, says she and different native folks have repeatedly approached Westminster metropolis council concerning the lack of social and neighborhood areas within the space.
“There are a number of older individuals who go to the sq. not as a result of they essentially wish to, however who go there as a result of there’s nowhere else,” Haynes stated. “I’ve been battling with the council to supply social actions in order that the folks that don’t wish to be there essentially gained’t should. However folks go there as a result of there’s nowhere else.”
A Westminster council spokesperson stated: “Claims that Westminster metropolis council has banned anybody within the sq. from enjoying dominos and backgammon are unfaithful.
“The order applies to amplified noise and various delinquent and unlawful actions, corresponding to urinating and drug dealing, that the area people has seen going down in and across the native space.
“Because the introduction of the courtroom order this public realm has held numerous family-friendly neighborhood occasions, that had beforehand not been capable of happen.”
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