Around 1,000 people will march through Nottingham city centre this evening to protest against a planned UK state visit by Donald Trump.
Protesters will gather at the Forest Recreation Ground at 5.30pm and use Mansfield Road, Milton Street, Parliament Street and King Street to arrive in Market Square for a rally.
Organisers planned the event to coincide with others around the UK which are opposing the US President’s visit later this year.
MPs will today debate a petition signed by more than 1.8 million people calling for the invitation to be rescinded by the Government.
The event is expected to cause some disruption in the city, with Nottingham City Transport (NCT) saying it is planning for severe delays to its bus services.
And Nottingham City Council criticised the timing of the event, saying
In a statement, NCT said: “Short notice diversions and stop closures will be implemented as the march progresses and as we assess the impact of the march and we’ll be providing live updates on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
“Our city centre liaison team will also be around to advise.
“Where possible, we would suggest you catch buses out of the city centre before 17:15 to minimise the disruption on your journey.”
NCT list of affected bus services
1, 3, 4, 48, 49, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9B, 10, 10C, 10X, 11
11C, 15, 16, 16C, 17, 25, 25B, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34
35, 35B, 36, 39, 40, 40B, 41, 42, 43,44, 44A, 45
46, 47, 56, 57, 58, 59, 68, 69, 69A, 70, 70B, 71
71B, 77, 78, 79, 79A, 79B, 87, 88, 89, 100, L10, L11, L14.
Stuart Halforty, Secretary of Nottingham Peoples’ Assembly, which has helped organise the march, said: “We are expecting around a thousand people, it’s a logistical nightmare but shows the strength of feeling about Donald Trump and his politics.
“It is an organised route, we’ve told the police and the city council.
“The police say we have to have a minimum of twelve stewards so we are aiming to have twenty and they will be wearing yellow high visibility jackets and will get a briefing at the beginning at 5pm.
“Whilst there will be some disruption we have experienced stewards who’ve done this before and of course we will be marching into town as people are trying to leave work so the traffic will be substantial.
Nottingham Stand up to Racism, Nottingham Stop the War and Nottingham CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) groups are all involved in organising the march.
Nottingham City Council said in a statement: “The council has no powers to stop people exercising their democratic right to protest and advises people to set off [on journeys] earlier than normal or avoid the area if possible.
“The council will post social media messages to alert people, monitor things from the traffic control centre and liaise with the police to facilitate the event as best as possible.”
City Council Leader Councillor Jon Collins said: “While I might support the sentiment, it is disappointing that the organisers of the protest insisted on a route and a time causing disruption and delay to members of the public.
“I’m sure a less disruptive option would have been possible and that would have encouraged greater support for the point the protest organisers want to make.”
