Bridge closure protest

Mill Road Traders' Association protest poster — Click the banner to go to the comments section

Mill Road was brought to a standstill on Wednesday 24^th June 2020 by a protest on Mill Road Bridge organised by the Mill Road Traders’ Association.

Tweeters, bloggers, vloggers, journalists were out in force.

Video from local independent vlogger, Mick Brown, aka Lord Drainlid

Cambridge News published an article by Local Democracy Reporter, Benjamin Hatton, Chants of ‘Don’t Kill Mill Road’ as major Cambridge route brought to a halt in bridge closure protest. (click through for full report, photos and video.)

Mill Road TV produced this slideshow.

Reporters from BBC Look East (West edition) and ITV News Anglia were in attendance. Both featured the demonstration on their respective evening’s bulletins. Unfortunately BBC Look East (west edition) is not archived on iPlayer. The coverage on ITV News Anglia is archived.

View the ITV News Anglia report here.
Protesters block bridge over council’s plans to close Cambridge road, including a video report by ITV Anglia’s Claire McGlasson. (This link will work for as long as this report is archived. We are unsure how long this will be.)

This and the BBC report are solely on the demo, whereas Jeremy Sallis, on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s ‘Brunchtime live’ had a range of interviews and opinions:

Katherine from Little Petra – in the news bulletin at 1hr 1min
Pamela Wesson from Fantasia – in the report feature at 1h 08min
An email from Sweet & Maurizio – following the above
Tom Holbrook from 5^th Studio Architects – at 1hr 26min
Pamela (reprise clip) – in the news bulletin at 2hr 00min
Cambridgeshire County Councillor Linda Jones – following the above

(This programme was available for one month. It has now been deleted.)

Cllr Linda Jones and Fantasia’s Pamela Wesson discussed Mill Road bridge restrictions on Cambridge 105 FM.

While, over at the Cambridge Independent, Alex Spencer, published Mill Road protest hailed a ‘huge success’ with photos and Twitter videos from Local Democracy Reporter, Benjamin Hatton, and others.

Here are a selection of Ben’s tweets.

Lots of traffic on Mill Road as protesters block the bridge – somewhat ironically protesting against the county council’s plan to block the bridge pic.twitter.com/oVIEpiooTI
— Ben Hatton (@BenHattonJourno) June 24, 2020

Quite the commotion on the bridge. A rough count puts it at over 50 people. TV news cameras in attendance pic.twitter.com/3mf8eNnBNZ
— Ben Hatton (@BenHattonJourno) June 24, 2020

Traders joined by big taxi protest pic.twitter.com/dpqubHlJjc
— Ben Hatton (@BenHattonJourno) June 24, 2020

‘Don’t kill Mill Road’ chants pic.twitter.com/DhnjrQet2x
— Ben Hatton (@BenHattonJourno) June 24, 2020

We also have this statement from Cllr Ian Bates

‘Receiving funding for more than 90 schemes to improve cycling and walking transport links across the county is good news for Cambridgeshire. it will allow people to get out and about during the pandemic while enabling them to stay safe and maintain social distancing.
“Just to be clear – Mill Road bridge will not be shut to all vehicles – it will remain open to buses as well as cyclists and pedestrians. The measures we are putting in place – such as wider footpaths – will allow for more pedestrian space, which will increase accessibility and is essential for people to adhere to social distancing as lockdown is gradually eased and our towns, villages and cities start to open up again.
‘The money for the scheme is part of the governments emergency active travel fund: and must be used within eight weeks. As we are in the middle ofa pandemic, we are working on these projects quickly.
However, these measures are only temporary and people will have the opportunity to feedback to us.
“We welcome all feedback from those aﬁected by the changes. including shop owners, local residents. cyclists and those that worship on Mill Road. it’s important also to note that the changes are being made under an Experimental Traﬁic Regulation Order (ETRO). The use of an experimental order allows for the consultation to run alongside the implementation of the scheme and amendments can be made to the scheme during the life of the experiment.”
Cllr Ian Bates, Chairman of the Highways and Transport Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council

This post is nor open for comment. There is much more information on the associated post – Wider footways, barriers and bridge closure – and over 120 comments, in the comment section. You are welcome to add your (polite) comment, or reply to another commenter there. (It’s just housekeeping: it’s tidier if all the comments are in one place.

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