Brigg Horse Fair

Brigg welcomes visitors

Saturday, 26 July 2003

Road block

In what is fast becoming a new tradition, the access to Station Road has been blocked up in anticipation of the arrival of the travellers with their horses (picture right). The gates are open at the town end during the council office hours and are manned by a private security firm. The roadblock will remain until after the end of the traditional fair.

Unfortunately this leaves the 'welcome' to visitors to our town arriving from the railway station as seen. The road is blocked at both ends by yellow steel gates, and in the middle by many tons of gravel which have been placed in a 'clamp' which extends the entire width of the carriage way blocking the road and footpaths.

The only way around is for (able bodied) people to struggle round the side or - ironically enough - to ride around on horseback ... Quite how disabled people or the emergency services can get to the railway station is not clear.

This policy of preventing access to Station Road may solve one problem in the short term, but create a much greater danger to the wider area. By physically dispersing the travelling community, there is a very real risk of uncontrolled encampments around the Brigg area making it difficult for police to monitor and control disorder, if it were to occur.

If the travellers were contained within a set area with active policing combined with discussion with leaders of the traveller's community, then any potential conflicts could be dealt with quickly and effectively.