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'This Horrible Abortion' Conservative Councillors Outraged at Prospect
( from Chorlton Green, Number 7 October 1984 - the Community Newspape for Chorlton & District, 16 pages A3 size, price15p. Published at Chorlton Community Education Centre Mauldeth Road West ) Conservative councillor Les Sanders hit out last week at the way the group of Labour councillors on Manchester City Council had supported the proposed peace camp in Beech Road Park. "It's entirely political," he said, "The Labour councillors are interested in anything that will embarrass predominately Conservative Chorlton. If Chorlton wasn't Conservative, it wouldn'it have succeeded in this horrible abortion being squashed." Councillor Sanders and the two other Tory councillors in the Chorlton Ward, Margaret Davies and Eric Walker, were furious after women from Chorlton's Greenham Support Group had staged a two hour protest in defiance of a bye-law. which prohibited them from holding the peace camp. |
| As footballers played on undisturbed, some women
and children from the Group lit candles, played music and erected a polythene
tent, whilst others collected several bags of litter in attempts to clean
up the park. "We're only here for a few hours," a spokeperson said, "It's
a symbolic presence." No police action was taken to intervene. A deputation
of residents from the streets immediately surrounding the park called on
Councillor Davies, who lives in Cross Road, to demonstrate their anger
at the Group's latest action. One man let his temper get the better of
him and in a shocking outburst of aggression tore down posters pinned to
a tree on the edge of the park. This development follows the implemening
of bye-law 23 by Manchester City Council, preventing the Group from staging
a ten-day peace camp in the Park to draw local attention to the third anniversary
of the womens' peace movement at Greenham Common Airbase. The banned camp
had originally been scheduled for ten days, but the Group decided to shorten
it to six days. They say that no more than about ten people would have
attended the camp at any one time. Councillor Davies said. "We had no idea
how many people would come. The park is locally and affectionately known
as 'The Rec' ; it is a very small park, you can walk round it in 7 or 8
minutes and diagonally across it in one minute. The camp would take the
amenities away from local residents." The camp was intended to encourage
local discussion of the anti-Cruise issue and a central site was essential
for its success, say the organisers. During preceding weeks, the camp had
applied to the City Council for permission to use Beech Road Park, which
had been granted.
The relevant bye-laws prohibiting public meetings, banners and music had been waived, probably because the Council found they could authorise the Group to stage the camp. The Group say they were satisfied that the appropriate authorities had been contacted. But a week before the camp was due to begin, one of the bye-laws, no.23, was implemented forbidding a meeting to take place in any park w ith the exception of six larger parks in the City of Manchester. The Group maintained it was useless staging a small camp in a large park as the impact would be unnoticeably small. They would also have been away from Chorlton. (The nearest of the larger parks is Alexandra Park) The women were forced to cancel the camp rather than face a High Court injunction. The three Tory councillors were to present a petition, signed by 500 local resi- dents, to the Lord Mayor demonstrating against the proposed camp. This became unnecessary once the Council had no choice but to enforce bye-law 23. In a letter posted to households in the area of the Park, the Tories claimed that the majority of local residents were opp- osed to the camp. However, subsequent investigations cast a measure of doubt on this statement. It appears that some residents living by the park were positively in favour of the camp. Indeed, some had offered the Group use of their toilets and bathrooms. "Disgusting,it should have gone ahead," said one. "They would be better to clear up the dogdirt in the Park than oppose the peace camp", said another. Those that did sign the petition certainly opposed. Pauline Roxburgh, of Wilton Road, commented. "We've had more vegetarians (Lefties) moved in here in the last twelve months than soft mick." Others believed that any public meeting, however well intentioned, would attract a fringe element of "troublemakers". Residents of the adjoining roads are frequently disturbed by incidents in the Park. So what are the long-term implications of this ban for Chorlton ? Bye-law 23 states "A person shall not preach, lecture, or take part in any meeting for political, religious or any other purposes. or take part in any public before now. The Peace Festival earlier this spring, and the Summer Festival in Chorlton Park both went ahead with the minimum of incident. Now that Bye-Law 23 is widely known, will any public event be permitted ever again in our Chorlton parks ? |