Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Whose streets? Our streets?

Notts IMC + One of the MayDay organisers | 27.04.2010 12:42 | Mayday 2010 | Repression | Workers' Movements

Mayday, 1st May, is a day of anti-capitalist workers' struggle. Traditionally, Nottingham's contribution has been a march through the town centre and a rally of anti-capitalist campaigns and agitators. For the past few years, this gathering has taken place in Brewhouse Yard near Nottingham castle. However, this year the City Council have been putting all manner of obstacles in the organisers' way.

Permission for a rally in Brewhouse Yard was refused because "there were going to be Robin Hood activities in other places"! Permission was finally granted for the rally in Victoria Park on the St Ann's end of town but only subject to restrictive conditions such as displaying the Council logo on all publicity, displaying Council banners and was subject to a charge... all for using a 'public' park. In addition, organisers are having to pay to get roads closed for the march.

All of this has led one of the organisers to question whether the streets and public spaces of Nottingham really do belong to the people or are just an extension of the City Council's private fiefdom. These restrictions have very serious impacts on people's freedom to protest and assemble, as demonstrated by recent police crackdowns on festivals, such as the Strawberry Fair in Cambridge.

MayDay rally and march from 11am, Victoria Park, Bath Street.

Newswire: The Future Of Protest In Nottingham : Whose streets? Our streets! | May Day Discussion | MayDay 2010 in Nottingham : Fight Back | Strawberry Fayre Fight Back! | Police Stop Strawberry Fair

Previous features: Mayday! In The East Midlands | Our Square Isn't It?



Organising May Day this year has brought us face to face with how local protest may look in the future. And it looks expensive. And corporate.

Like most years, we initially asked if we could book the Square for the rally. Like every year, we were turned down. This is possibly just as well, as using the Square would have entailed vast amounts of public liability insurance, as well as other fees, including those we came up against later. Also, if using the Square, we couldn’t put up our own stalls and gazebos – no, we’d have to hire the council’s little huts – again, at no small price.

So we tried Brewhouse Yard again. But this year, the council would not let us have it because there were going to be Robin Hood activities in other places. Please don’t ask us to explain the logic of that. But it begins to show how difficult it is to find a public place in which to hold a public meeting or rally. Aren’t the streets and parks our streets and parks? But the council believes otherwise, and the council makes arbitrary decisions.

Finally, the council agreed that we could use Victoria Park. But with this came a plethora of regulations, including: litter picking in the surrounding area as well as the park; displaying their logo on publicity; risk assessments; first aid; displaying their banners if they wanted us to; etc, etc. We had to get public liability insurance for the use of the park. And there was a charge. Whose parks? Our parks!

Next, there was the route for the march to be agreed. We have always had police permission for the route in the past – not because we all believe that a protest should be agreed by the forces of the state, but because we believed it would make a safer, more family-friendly environment, where first-time marchers would feel comfortable. It had never been difficult to get this police permission before. This year, however, the system has changed. Instead of asking the usual man at the cop shop, a council official is now in charge of permitting the streets to be used for protest. (Apparently this is at the request of the police “because the streets belong to the council”. Whose streets? Our streets!)

Despite having public liability insurance for the use of the park, we had to get another lot of public liability insurance for the rally.

Well, we got permission. But during this, we found out about Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs). These mean that, to march along a public street – and therefore close it to traffic – costs money. In Nottingham, it is around £400. A Temporary Traffic Regulation Order is made by a Council when it is necessary to prohibit or control vehicular and / or pedestrian traffic along the highway. The Council can make a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order to cover planned situations, or can issue an Emergency Notice if regulation is needed without delay. TTROs are normally used to allow essential or emergency works to be carried out on the highway, typically installation of, or maintenance works to, services such as gas, electricity, water etc. And, apparently, political protest.

All this has alarming implications for the future of political and popular protest. Already we have seen the Square become a showcase for Council and corporate gloating and self-aggrandizement rather than a meeting place for the people. Access to the Council House has become more restricted as it seems the people were wearing out the fabric of the grand building. Now the council’s authoritarian and money-grabbing control of the parks and streets make it more and more difficult to organise any autonomous public activities at all. It’s either proud, ambitious, cleaner, safer and full of corporate snot, or it’s not allowed. TTROs are effectively a tax on protest.

Imagine you want a protest march against poverty – well, you’ll have to pay for it. Imagine you’ll want a protest march against some council policy – well, you’ll need council permission.

In this country, you now have to bribe the council and the police before you can protest. Let’s not take this lying down. Lying down probably needs a licence and a risk assessment anyway. Keep protesting and keep marching.

And please support the May Day march and rally this year – see http://nottinghamshire.indymedia.org.uk/2010/04/448550.html and FIGHT BACK!

(May Day Saturday May 1st 11am onwards at Victoria Park, Bath Street, near Sneinton Market. March at 12 noon. Music, stalls and speakers before and after the march.)

Notts IMC + One of the MayDay organisers

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

John Collins favourite playright

01.05.2010 08:39

"“I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control”"

Alan Bennett


Hi JC remembetr what your old mentor said

01.05.2010 08:42

"“Most of the freedoms which we possess have been secured by riots”" Michael Foot

JC fan club


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech