A trustee of a Caribbean elderly community centre in Newham resorted to sleeping in the building to prevent a Newham Council eviction – for four nights straight.
Clifford Headley, a trustee who turns 80 next year, felt that sleeping in the Hibiscus Community Centre was the only available option.
The Hibiscus Caribbean Elderly Association were given notice on last month that they had seven days to pay £17,000 in rent arrears, after which the London Borough of Newham would be changing the locks.
“I am resilient… and I haven’t done it alone. I’ll probably sleep for a whole day after this”, Clifford said.
On Monday 1 June at 06:15 a bailiff and locksmith arrived – but since the building was occupied, no action was taken.
Neighbours and community groups – including Stand Up To Racism and London Renters Union – mobilised support for Hibiscus Community Centre last week, including staging a protest outside the centre’s locked gates.
Hibiscus was co-founded by activist and midwife Lucel Tate in 1994, and her name and reputation was used by the London Borough of Newham to secure a £900,000 grant earlier this year to refurbish the park outside the hospital where Lucel worked.
Cara Whelan, Member Solidarity co-lead of the Newham and Leytonstone Branch of London Renter’s Union, said: “It is outrageous that Newham Council are attempting to evict elderly people from a beloved community centre. Newham Council must call off the bailiffs.
“The council will try to tell us there’s no magic money tree, but we know different. Closing community centres is a political decision. It’s insulting that the council is planning to put up a statue to Lucel Tate, while it is actually destroying her legacy.”
A neighbour of the centre, Laura, said: “I feel really angry and sad that the spaces that we do have are being taken away and that the council doesn’t invest in them. I feel like it’s really worth fighting for as once these spaces disappear they rarely come back.”
The Borough of Newham is the most deprived in London with locals stressing the importance of youth clubs and regeneration.
The Hibiscus Community Centre provides after-school clubs, fitness classes, and daycare services for the elderly and vulnerable – including referrals made by the London Borough of Newham (LBN), which Clifford says used to provide the centre with a steady income.
But between 2019 and 2021, Clifford claimed the council owed HCEA around £30,000 in unpaid invoices for daycare services, and that after Covid-19 they almost completely halted their referrals resulting in financial difficulties for Hibiscus.
This comes after a legal dispute in 2022 where LBN attempted to remove HCEA’s Premises Licence which the community association appealed – and won – though reportedly at great financial cost.
Council documents reveal that the dispute involved 11 noise complaints from five neighbouring households between August 2019 and February 2020 due to “heavy bass music”.
The Metropolitan Police also advised Newham Council to review Hibiscus’ license after a stabbing incident happened near the centre after the venue was hired for a 16th birthday party in 2023.
Clifford felt that the Met blamed the centre for postcode violence, while police at the time said the community centre failed to alert police quickly enough or share relevant CCTV.
The license review resulted in the requirement for same-sex security checks and any drugs or weapons found to be recorded in a logbook made available to police on request.
Clifford says that the centre encourages community cohesion by bringing together diverse ethnic and faith groups, including hosting an Islamic madrasa after-school club for 6-11 year-olds.
“The decision for a madrasa was primarily to use our facility as a means of encouraging greater contact between two communities who don’t really speak to each other… if you’re in the same building, you’re going to have to have some interaction.”
Other activities on offer include Zumba classes for mature women, three choirs (including a reggae choir), and a radio station running 12 hours a day.
Newham Council have been contacted for comment.
Featured Image Credit: London Renters Union
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