SQUATTERS occupying York’s former Fibbers building have been served with a notice of eviction - but bailiffs failed to appear as expected yesterday.

A dozen supporters gathered outside the ex-music venue in Toft Green yesterday morning after Patrick Thelwell and other squatters were served with papers stating that an interim possession order had been granted by a judge at York County Court on Tuesday.

It said the order had been granted on the grounds they were occupying the building without the owners’ permission and had no right to do so.

The document stated that the order was served on Thursday, July 24, which led the squatters to claim the eviction was illegal. “We weren’t even here on July 24,” said Mr Thelwell. "The order was not served correctly and is thus invalid.”

The papers said a final possession order face-to-face hearing had been scheduled for next Thursday morning at the county court. No eviction had been carried out by the time The Press went to print last night.

The squatters said that for the last two weeks, a community centre they had created in the abandoned building had created opportunities for local people to spend time cleaning it and making it into a welcoming space for all.

“We have established a wellbeing room, a library, a kitchen to feed people, hosted live music and housed those who needed it,” they said.

“We believe that North Star would not have been able to coordinate such activities from a grassroots perspective, as they are a profit-driven company.

“This site has provided a gathering point for people in York, a place for those who need creative space, a place to live and a community space that we can build and create alongside others. We wanted to use these spaces in order to meet the varied needs of the community in a non-hierarchical and grassroots fashion.

“The eviction of Fibbers will take yet another focal point of community from the people of York. It will mean that those who have been relying on that space to live and work will be yet again thrown into uncertain situations with few other places to go.”

Developers North Star were asked to respond to the squatters’ claims but did not comment yesterday. However, the firm claimed last week that the building was "dangerously unsafe to be inhabited" - and said a revised vision for the site was being drawn up which included music, cultural and work space which would be "fantastic for the city’s cultural sector".

It said that if the protesters had come to North Star and asked for space to offer cultural use, it would have happily worked with them to find somewhere suitable.