Student protest: Fresh pictures from Birmingham council house sit-in

Dec 1 2010 by Kat Keogh, Birmingham Mail

SCORES of students angry at proposed tuition fee rises occupied Birmingham’s Council House and staged a four hour sit-in.

A stand-off with police came to an end peacefully after leading councillors agreed to speak to the students to discuss their concerns.

Student Poppy Watkiss told the Mail: “We’re not going to take this lying down.We walked in. There was no violence or force.”

A group of 50 staged a sit-in at the historic building waving their placards and chanting for four hours from 1pm.

Police officers and negotiators accompanied them and remained on hand throughout.

Meanwhile a separate group, also of around 50, stood outside on the steps leading to the entrance, where they held aloft banners bearing slogans including “think of the children” and “This man has Eton our future” next to a picture of Prime Minister David Cameron.

The protesters presented the council with a list of demands on entering the chamber, which included a meeting with the “councillor in charge of the education budget” and for Lib Dem councillors to “openly campaign” against tuition fee increases.

A statement read by one of the group on the steps of the Council House said: “We call on all elected politicians in Birmingham to support student and union demands to scrap increases in tuition fees and unfair cuts to the public sector.