Save The Rabbit!
8th November 2010
We’ve Saved the Rabbit!
Hackney Council Back Down over Giant Rabbit
Hackney Council have officially withdrawn their threat to remove the painting of a giant rabbit on the side of The Premises Studios. More than two thousand people signed a petition in one week objecting to the Council’s enforcement order.
The 12ft giant rabbit is one of several spectacular pieces of street art that have appeared in the east end of London by internationally renowned artist ROA. Last year Hackney Council caused widespread outrage by painting over a large Banksy artwork in Dalston.
The petition to ‘save the rabbit’ received an astonishing amount of public support in a short period of time. At one point names were being added at a rate of one per minute and the topic trended on Twitter. Local artists, schools and residents all lent their support to demand that Hackney Council drop their threat to the painting.
“We’re delighted that Hackney Council have recognised our campaign and we’d like to thank everyone for all the amazing support and work to help save our rabbit” say the Premises owners Julia Craik and Viv Broughton. “It’s a beautiful piece of street art that everyone loves and we’re very glad it’s here to stay.”
Thanks again to everyone who has helped us – this shows that with public support we can really change things – a great result!
Julia Craik
4th November 2010
John Hegley has written a poem for our campaign! Very lovely and like a Haiku in its short simplicity:
This rabbit
can we grabbit?
If it disappears
it won’t be into a hat.
Let us hope that
Hackney Council has ears.
John Hegley
International street artist EINE lends his support to our campaign.
1.11.10
“There is a rabbit on Hackney Road, that’s right a rabbit not a knife wielding gangster, but a rabbit painted by a Belgian artist called ROA. The owners of the wall granted permission, the locals love it, school children adore it, visitors photograph it yet Hackney Council think it’s a blight on the environment and want it painted out. Please sign the petition so we can force the Council to sit down and have a meeting where for the sake of street artists, their fans and the hundreds of people who visit Hackney every week to see this great art movement in the flesh, we can try to change their policy of removing street art”. International street artist EINE lends his support to our campaign.
UPDATE 1.11.2010
In response to Hackney Council ordering London Recording Studio The Premises to paint over a beautiful piece of street art by internationally renowned artist ROA, the directors of The Premises have issued an official challenge which we publish below. They’ve found a clause in an act passed in 2009 that suggests that due to the overwhelming levels of public support they’ve received for the rabbit they may be able to force Hackney to debate their policy on street art and hopefully review it entirely at their next meeting. As it stands the Council’s policy is to paint over all graffiti and/or street art, regardless of merit or local support, a policy which leads to the loss of works of great value such as the Banksy that was painted over in Church Street last year and potentially this ROA. These public artworks bring tourism, trade and international press interest to the borough not to mention brightening up dismal streets and derelict buildings. The Premises argue that the rabbit must stay and they refuse to paint over it. Hackney Council have said the studios must apply for planning permission for the artwork but The Premises want to force Hackney to look not just at this artwork but their entire enforcement policy.
Here is The Premises’ latest letter to Hackney Council:
Julia Craik
29.10.10
Dear Gaynor Brown, Hackney Councillors and Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers,
Thank you of your letter of 22.10.10, received today 29.10.10.
I note its contents and see that following your legal notice ordering us to paint over a beautiful piece of street art by internationally acclaimed artist ROA on a wall we privately own, you now suggest that we apply for planning permission for this or you will paint over it yourselves.
I write to inform you that we will not be applying for planning permission and although we understand that this is an unconventional approach we give the following reasons for our stance:
1. Whilst we recognise that Hackney Council has a policy of issuing legal notices ordering artwork to be removed and then modifying the notice to a request for planning permission to be made, the process has many flaws in it and we would like this policy to be reviewed. In many instances notices are sent to the wrong address as was the case with both our case and that of the painted over Banksy in N16. If no reply is received to your notice your policy is to paint over the artwork much to the distress of Hackney residents. If we had not accidentally come across the wrongly delivered notice before the 14 days our period of appeal would have expired and the artwork would already be gone.
2. We feel that a council has no right to determine what constitutes art and what does not, particularly when it is on private property. Your own officer Alan Laing, in his position as Hackney Council cabinet member for neighbourhoods said that the council would remove all graffiti regardless of artistic value and that “ Hackney Council does not make a judgement call on whether graffiti is art or not, our task is to keep Hackney’s streets clean. “ We formally request that this policy be reviewed and argue that if Hackney Council do not wish to take a position on the quality and worth of street art then they should not have any influence on what is or is not painted over and should not act in the manner they do.
3. We note with great concern that even if we were to apply for planning permission, this permission may not be granted as you state that “ If however consent is not granted we will restart the process of enforcement.” There is therefore no guarantee at all that this action will save our rabbit so we need to take far stronger action, as we are doing here.
4. There is huge confusion about your policy as it stands. We have received communications from councillors who do not know that your policy is to issue removal notices, we also have an email sent by Hackney’s Regeneration and Planning Department (concerning artwork on another property) clearly stating that “I can confirm that planning permission is not required to paint a mural on your property, providing it would not be deemed to constitute an advert (i.e. brand names, logos etc).” We also have another suggesting that the Council’s policy is only to remove graffiti if it is offensive or if it is tagging. Why should we therefore apply? There can be nothing at all offensive about a painted rabbit.
5. We argue that street art is a vital part of Hackney’s identity and in contrast to many of the negative stereotypes that exist about Hackney – gang culture, gun crime etc – this part of Hackney’s image is of great benefit to the borough. Street art brings in huge amounts of tourism, trade, international interest and Hackney Council’s policy of painting over some of its greatest assets is regressive and must be reviewed. Most residents of Hackney are proud of their borough’s cultural activity and removing legitimate and valuable art is against the majority wish.
6. We do not understand why, when the artwork has been at its location for over a year, we should suddenly have to embark on an expensive, time consuming and unnecessary process. This policy of issuing legal notices is a huge waste of Council’s time and money. In these times of cuts and recession no Hackney resident wishes to see their council tax wasted on unpopular and unnecessary actions such as this. Many people receiving your notices and letters would not feel qualified to carry out the necessary procedures and might well be intimidated into reluctantly painting over artworks they own and are happy to have on their property. Once these are gone they are lost forever.
I also have one final and very important challenge to your letter. I note that The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 requires Councils to have an online petition system on their website (we can find none on the Hackney site; possibly another example of Hackney Council’s maladministration). By law, if such a petition receives over 750 signatures, a debate must be triggered at full council. Earlier this week we set up an online petition here http://www.petitiononline.com/PremROA/petition.html it currently has nearly 2000 signatures and has been receiving sign ups at a rate of one a minute. We are therefore formally calling on Hackney Council to debate their policy on street art removal at their next meeting.
We have received support for our actions far beyond anything we could have expected, our online petition is growing and growing, the hashtag #savetherabbit trended in London on Twitter last Tuesday – this means that for several hours the 6th most talked about subject on Twitter was this rabbit – a phenomenal level of popular support that has to be taken into consideration. If it were not for this level of support we would not take the actions we are but we feel we have a real opportunity here to formally challenge Hackney Council to change their policy to one that reflects the views that the local residents are expressing both to us and to the online world
It’s over to you now Hackney Council. We refuse to paint over the rabbit and we refuse to apply for planning permission for it. Will you continue to act in this unpopular, aggressive, backward thinking and detrimental way or will you take this level of public outcry at your policy as a sign that it MUST be reviewed? We trust that you won’t face public ridicule and scorn by painting over our much-loved rabbit but as we say, over to you…
Yours sincerely,
Julia Craik and Viv Broughton
Directors
The Premises Studios Ltd
UPDATE: 28.10.10
Open letter to Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, and all Hackney Councillors 28.10.10
Dear Sir/Madam
As you will know there has been a huge amount of media interest in Hackney Council’s decision to order the painting over of a beautiful ROA artwork of a rabbit on a building we privately own. The notice describes it as “a blight on the local environment “ and “detrimental to the amenity of the area”. From the overwhelming amount of support we have received from the press, the local community, online petitioning, Twitter and many other sources we argue that it is quite the opposite, it is a great asset and is loved by residents. Public opinion is incredibly strong on this matter and your policy on street art is now under a great deal of scrutiny. To date we have received over 1200 signatures on our petition in just a couple of days and this continues to rise hourly. The petition is here http://www.petitiononline.com/PremROA/petition.html
We acknowledge that the Council have verbally told us that they will hold off painting over the artwork if we apply for planning permission. We will not, however be doing this, as we understand that the anger people feel about your current policy needs to be addressed and there is a wider concern that would not be addressed if we simply act in line with current rules. We refuse to paint over the rabbit and request that you do not either. By applying for planning permission we would be assuming that your policy is valid and we argue that it is not.
As things stand your policy is to order that all artwork be painted over regardless of value, artistic or otherwise, and if an owner does not comply you paint over it yourselves and issue a bill for the work. This policy is ludicrous and utterly out of touch with Hackney residents’ wishes. As you state that you do not make any judgements about whether graffiti is art or not, it is therefore not your place to make judgements about what should or should not be painted over. Artwork on private property is nothing to do with the Council and interference in this way is a waste of public money, services and time. In these times of recession, a very unwise policy.
Council officers should only take action in cases of non-commercial street art if the owner of the property or a substantial number of local residents complain.
Street art is something that brings a huge amount of tourism and money into Hackney, it is something many residents identify with in a very positive way, and brings beauty to otherwise dismal streets. Cases such as the Banksy that was painted over in Stoke Newington bring widespread ridicule upon Hackney Council. With all the support from the petition, the local community and the media we have we are in a very strong position to ask you to debate and then change your policy on street art as a matter of urgency.
Yours faithfully,
Julia Craik and Viv Broughton
Directors
The Premises Studios Ltd
205-209 Hackney Rd, London E2 8JL
Save the Rabbit UPDATE: 27.10.10
We have decided to use the huge support we have received to save our rabbit to ask Hackney Council to entirely review their policy of painting over street art regardless of merit or local support. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 requires Councils to have an online petition system on their website (we can find none on the Hackney site; yet another example of Hackney Council’s maladministration). If such a petition receives over 750 signatures, a debate must be triggered at full council. Our online petition received over 800 signatures in just one day so we are formally calling on Hackney Council to debate their policy on street art removal at their next meeting. We argue that if Hackney Council do not wish to take a position on the quality and worth of street art they should not have any influence on what is or is not painted over and should not act in the manner they do. Their current policy is to issue legal notices ordering property owners to paint over artworks on their buildings (which are often not received by the owners as was the case with the Banksy) and if the owners do not comply they paint over the artworks themselves. If an owner protests they are invited to apply for retrospective planning permission, a process which is costly and time-consuming. This appears to be a total waste of council money, an extra expense to the property owner and may not even be granted. This policy MUST be changed and we will use this opportunity to ask Hackney Council to do this. Please keep spreading the word, forwarding on the petition (see below) the hashtag #savetherabbit proved very powerful yesterday – this is a great opportunity for us to challenge and force the council to change!
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?PremROA&1
Julia Craik
Save The Rabbit Blog Post 26.10.10
In an act of remarkable stupidity Hackney Council are demanding that we paint over a beautiful piece of street art at our London recording studios The Premises. The artwork is a beautiful painting of a rabbit painted by the famous Belgian street artist ROA which he created on our wall a couple of years ago. It’s been there ever since and is the joy of local residents and the destination of many street art tours that take place through London.
In a similar fashion to their stance on the wonderful Banksy that Hackney Council painted over in 2009, saying it was the policy of the council remove all graffiti regardless of artistic value, they are demanding that we paint over it and if we do not they will do so themselves and issue us with a bill for their work. Describing the hugely popular rabbit as “ a blight on the environment” and “ detrimental to the amenity of the area” they have issued a legal notice giving us 14 days to remove it.
We will, of course, NEVER paint over the rabbit and are protesting strongly. We’ve started a petition and today we trended on Twitter with our #savetherabbit campaign.
Help us save the ROA rabbit by signing the petition here
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?PremROA&1
If you’d like to do any press coverage or help us out call Julia Craik on 020 7729 7593. It’s more than just this rabbit, it’s their entire policy we need to change, street art is a great addition to Hackney, brings people into the borough, promotes London as a great cultural centre and Hackney Council need to realise how much people identify with this aspect of their borough’s identity.
Find out 