The Eco-Village (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

By Community Correspondent Sophie Kiedaisch

5:21pm Monday 7th June 2010 in YOUR Richmond News

On June 6th 2009 almost a hundred activists combined on a piece of vacant land at Kew Bridge in south west London to create an eco-village community. The eco-village was based entirely on sustainable living, demonstrating how people can live with the basic necessities.

However on Thursday the 27th of May 2010, 15 bailiffs and police came and bulldozed the place down. They had permission from the local counsel to build 160 luxury apartments. There were 30-40 eco-villagers living there at the time, they were escorted off of the building after removing their possessions. One eco-villager stayed in a tall tower protesting the policemen for hours; however the small community was eventually shut down.

The eco-villagers were trying to promote sustainable living. They use recycled materials and rubbish to build their homes, growing their own crops as well as taking old food from supermarket dustbins. They were trying to show how people can live outside of societies system, without the need for all the new technology and machinery. They were campaigning for freedom, anti war as well as trying to show global warming can be avoided, if we all just cut down on our waste and preserve our resources.

The eco-village had a very good system of decision making, they had meeting and all the members had to agree on something before it was decided. They have now moved to parliament square to what they are calling democracy village. This new temporary replacement for the eco-village currently has around 35 tents. A new eco-village will be set up however it is not know where it will be yet.

The eco-village had a large impact on the areas and the people around it. The eco-village was open every day for meetings and talks and on the weekends they had music, art, face-painting as well as other planned activities. Anyone could come to the eco-village for a chat or stay with them. They became part of the community and now they are gone it is very different.