Students In Rent Strike

  From The Cambridge Evening News, 20th Oct 1999

Nearly 250 students at King's College, Cambridge, are set to go on a rent strike. Of the 380 undergraduates at the college, 240 people joined its "Access Alliance" in protest at a rent rise they say will be at least 40 per cent over four years.

Last week Cambridge University Students' Union voted unanimously to support rent strikes and to organise a demonstration this Saturday.

Mat Coakley, who resigned as president of the King's College union common room to organise the strike, was elected chairman of the alliance's executive group. He said he was "amazed and stunned" by the number of people involved. He said: "We had speaker after speaker get up and say, 'If this had happened six years ago, I wouldn't be here'."

Ian Barter, first bursar at King's College, was unavailable for comment. College bills are set to be sent out later this week, with a two-week payment deadline.