So now it is all going to be in the hands of the judge who decides if this is a claim that is, in the legal phrase, 'arguable' and so should be allowed to go forward for judicial review. Putting it together has been a massive undertaking, and it would not have been possible without our barristers, Gretta Schumacher and Remi Reichhold who have given their time for no payment, because they believe in this cause, and without Leigh Day solicitors for being prepared to work on the basis of crowd funding. And above everything else we owe it all to the trust of supporters who have signed the petition in their thousands and have also dug in their pockets to provide essential legal funding. We are humbled and honoured. 

No one knows where it goes from here; the advice we have is that a judge would be likely to sympathise with arguments to freeze the status quo, at least till we know whether we have permission to go to judicial review.

If nothing else, we hope to get answers to these questions: why did the City which had promised to listen to local communities after the 2016 café tendering fiasco, hunker down over the last few years and create an information-free zone about decisions that heath and open spaces users clearly feel strongly about? Why was this hugely well funded local authority suddenly, apparently, experiencing a cash crisis, and why wouldn't it explain what this has been caused by? And why would this be helped by promises to refurbish the customer areas of a handful of cafes, or raise charges tenfold for community events, or ask for four figure payments to rent out disused storerooms? It's as if the government was trying to fund the NHS out of hospital car park fees.

Please stay tuned: when we have answers we'll pass them on. Meanwhile please keep circulating the petition, and if you can, giving a quid or two to the legal fund. https://gofund.me/083260c87