WINDRUSH MONUMENT AT WATERLOO STATION- REDACTED MINUTES OF WINDRUSH COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE

In June 2018, the Honourable Teresa May MP announced the formation of the Windrush Commemoration Committee “… commissioned by the Prime Minister to provide advice on how best to create a permanent and fitting tribute to the Windrush generation and their descendants.” She chose Baroness Floella Benjamin to chair the committee, and together with other civil servants, they chose members of WCC. The committee met in secret, and Minutes of meetings were kept from public knowledge. Windrush Foundation, the organisation that first came up in 1996 with the idea of annually commemorating Windrush Day was refused membership of WCC.

WCC recommended that Waterloo Station should be the Monument’s location and Mrs May announced the decision 22 June 2019. There were no consultations with the Caribbean public and so, Arthur Torrington, a Director of Windrush Foundation, requested WCC’s Minutes, but the British Government refused the request, saying it wasn’t in the public’s interest to do so. A complaint to the Information Commissioner in 2020 succeeded in our obtaining copies but each copy was redacted by civil servants.

Windrush Foundation is now making public the redacted Minutes so that everyone can read how WCC came up with its Waterloo Station recommendation and the process to do with the selection of who would build the Monument.

Windrush Foundation remains in dispute with the British government about these matters.

 

(Click the files below to download as a PDF)

WCC – First Meeting – 23/10/2018

WCC – Second Meeting – 26/11/2018

WCC – Third Meeting – 17/12/2018

WCC – Fourth Meeting – 21/1/2019

WCC – Fifth Meeting – 26/3/2019

WCC – Sixth Meeting – 30/4/2019

WCC – Seventh Meeting – 23/5/2019

WCC – Eighth  Meeting – 9/7/2019

WCC – Ninth  Meeting – 22/8/2019

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