‘Come together’ sang The Beatles – back in 1969 – and 40 years later that’s just what several hundred Bath protestors did to voice their disapproval at being – in their opinion – ignored!
Up at the Circus – on a bright Saturday morning – they gathered under those giant plane trees. Various placards acting like rallying flags of battle for those wanting to be sure they were marching under the right banner in terms of what exactly they were protesting about.
People were here to demonstrate against everything from the attempt to move the Central Library to arts funding and Curo’s proposal to seriously examine installing a cable car for the south of the city.
The protest, organised by a new umbrella group Bath Deserves Better, which unites several of the leading campaign groups in the city, say they are expecting hundreds to attend.
One of the main protests was the proposed East of Bath park and ride site at Bathampton Meadows and people were chatting about the April Fool’s Day headline in today’s Telegraph which claims metal detectorists had found evidence of buried chariot remains – suggesting the Romans had already been park and riding at this site centuries before.
Just a joke but it put the real Bath proposal in front of the nation.
While people gathered Bath Newseum spoke to protest organiser Emma Adams.
By the time protestors had rehearsed their various chants – and were ready to march off down Gay Street – numbers had swollen to a couple of hundred. More arrived to join in as things got underway.
With Bath Rugby at home today a lot of marchers were kitted out in the colours ready to move onto a different arena once the protest had ended.
By the time the protestors had reached the top of Milsom Street – numbers were looking impressive and, as they took to the middle of the road, quite a queue of traffic was building up behind them.
At the bottom of the street they staged a sit in. Let’s take you through all of this with Bath Newseum video.
Protestors hope they have done enough for B&NES to reconsider not agreeing to their combined meeting proposal. If not there might be more street action to come.
Superb coverage of this very powerfully messaged march,as former library manager I was proud to walk alongside others fighting for our very special library which attracts on average 43, 000 visitors per month, and caters for readers of all ages -very well!!Such a shame all our representations and those other groups there today have so far gone un heard and certainly many responses to concerns remain un addressed.Instead we have been faced with false information figures on library use, minimal details of the floor plans for proposed fragmented library.Thank you for this great record
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