The Treasurer of the Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association has told GB News that residents are fearful of being “evicted” by Chinese Government, following Labour’s approval of China’s new so-called super embassy.
Speaking to Britain’s Newsroom, Mark Nygate hit out at the Government’s decision and expressed concern for the 200 residents living on Royal Mint Court, where the new embassy will be located.
Following Labour’s approval of the new Chinese “mega-embassy”, opponents are set to launch a judicial review against the decision.
The Residents’ Association are also putting in a formal judicial review to try and stop the planning permission of the new super embassy on Royal Mint Court.
Telling GB News of the fight by residents to remain in their homes, Mr Nygate said: “We’ve been fighting this for seven-and-a-half years.
“When I moved in on the estate, it was owned by the by the Crown Estate. So the late Queen Elizabeth II was our landlady in effect. She actually opened the estate for us.
“We now sit here with people from China owning the land. We are concerned that they can see that our side of the estate as insecure in terms of their embassy.
“If you walk around the estate, you know three sides are covered by high walls. The fourth side, Cartwright Street, is where the residents live.
“We have a car park, it’s easy to access, and on that side of the estate for the embassy is going to be living quarters for their staff.
“They’re going to not want to have that kind of security issues with their staff, so we feel that they may want to move us off.”
Asked by host Andrew Pierce if he believes they will be evicted from their homes, he admitted: “They will try and get us out one way or the other. It’s a unique situation that residents are living on embassy land.
Mark Nygate has told GB News that Royal Mint Court residents fear ‘eviction’ by the Chinese state after Labour’s approval of their new mega-embassy
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PA / GB NEWS
“There’s 200 residents and over 100 flats, they were built in 1985. When this estate was built, there was a covenant in place on the lanes that had to be 100 flats.
“That’s because those flats and promises were for the workers at the Royal Mint when it was a sporting works, so that’s always been there, but that’s now lapsed.”
He added: “But obviously this situation with the embassy makes a whole different picture to what’s what’s going on.”
Highlighting the mass support from the public following the announcement, Mr Nygate told GB News: “We’ve raised over £140,000 through crowdfunding. We were amazed by the impact of yesterday’s decision and the support we’ve got from the public.
“So although it felt like we’d had a defeat, in reality we’ve won the public opinion, and they’re simply really supportive of what we’re doing here to understand their concerns and we thank them for that.”
The site of the proposed new Chinese embassy on the site of the former Royal Mint in Tower Hamlets | PA
Asked by Andrew if they have a “high-powered lawyer” backing their case, he said: “We have to indeed, and we are talking to him at the moment.
“He’s going through the paperwork that’s come from the Ministry of Housing. He’s going to give us some sort of opinions on what we’ve got and where we can fight.
“We are going to have to fight because we can’t lose our homes over this.”
Detailing the arguments of their case, Mr Nygate explained: “Our concerns have always been about safety, security and privacy for us. And in effect the embassy staff quarters is 80.5 metres from our furthest resident flats.
“They’ll have CCTV cameras looking at us. There’s been no control over that because embassy land, you’ve got no control of what they do.
“They’ll be very concerned about what’s going on in our state. They’re our landlord.
Mr Nygate told GB News that they were ‘amazed’ by the support given to them by the public
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GB NEWS
“So if they see something they’re not happy with, they could well come in and try and resolve the issue, whatever way they want to resolve it.”
Looking ahead to their legal challenge against the Government, Mr Nygate concluded: “The issue is that we weren’t expecting a 240-page document from the Ministry of Housing, which we’re going to have to go through very thoroughly.
“And obviously we have to pull together all our paperwork, so that £145,000 was what we thought of at the start. And if we raise more than that, then it will be used.
“We’ve always said that if we don’t use the money, we will try and return the money back to the donors or we’ll make it available to a charity.
“So we’re not going to have that money, and then it’s going to go somewhere we can make use of it.”
