So
You can protest.. but they want to charge you for that as well.
Top school with very creditable results is set to close and merge with a sink school further up the road. They are building a new school to accommodate the two schools .. only the parents at the nice school have demonstrated their anger. They were billed a small fortune by Salford Council and very naturally are refusing to pay. .. almost
£2000 
That is still being fought. .. and now we have this.. Easy earnings for greedy councils?
Or will we now see protest marches protesting about being charged for protesting?
(I note that marches by "political correct causes" have not been in the press as having been made to pay costs... )
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... bikers_payQuote:
Council to make bikers pay?
Neal Keeling
13/ 6/2008
ORGANISERS of a go-slow fuel protest on one of the region's busiest roads are to be billed for £400 by Salford council.
Town hall officers intend to track down those behind the demonstration to recoup their costs of working with police to control the event.
About 500 bikers and 20 trucks joined the protest on the M60 earlier this month which went through several parts of Salford and ended at The Quays.
The council says staff had to be on standby for the duration of the protest and a degree of planning was involved regarding the erection of road diversions to keep the convoy on an agreed route, and traffic lights had to re-phased.
The council is already locked in a row with St George's Roman Catholic High in Walkden, which is refusing to pay a bill after more than 1,000 staff, pupils and parents took to the streets in a parade against plans to shut the school.
The school's head teacher, Phil Harte, says it was a legitimate protest and is refusing to pay the £1918 which the council is demanding as payment for installing road closures, putting down cones, and providing stewards for the Sunday demonstration earlier this year.
Liberty is backing the school in its refusal to pay
Under a recently acquired local authority power councils can charge people thousands of pounds for the privilege of using public highways to stage legitimate political protest.
Legal framework
The Road Closure Order used to be administered by the police and was created in 1991 to give a legal framework for road closures for sporting, entertainment or social events. Last year it was transferred to local authorities.
Now anyone wanting to close a road has to give six weeks notice - instead of the five days required under the Public Order Act, which is the legislation that usually oversees demonstrations; and they have to pay the costs of that closure, which includes the cost to the council of legal indemnity, signage, and switching traffic lights.
Councillor Derek Antrobus, lead member for planning at Salford City Council said: "The council is charging St George's School for a service it has been asked to provide. Far from being 'the price of democracy', it is the expense of facilitating a safe protest. The school knew and had accepted that it would be charged.
"Issues like this are extremely difficult for local authorities but you have to ask yourself why is our charge for a service any different to the charge a village hall might make for a public meeting? Would people expect a DIY store to provide free wood and board for placards to be made?
"There were real costs to the council in organising the necessary road closures and we have a responsibility to all of our tax-payers to not set a precedent by passing costs on to them.
"Salford City Council cherishes the rights of citizens to participate in local democracy whether through the ballot or through protest. The pupils from St George's have been welcomed into the Council Chamber to hold councillors directly to account. The Council supported the organisers of the demonstration to ensure it was held safely.
"For the fuel protest, we assisted the police and Highways Agency in ensuring the demonstration ran as safely as possible with minimal disruption to motorists. There was a cost to the council for doing this and our intention is to recover those costs from the organisers.
"In both cases we will pursue payment in line with our usual debt recovery policies."
The difference with the sporting events is that they usually have fees to participate. We do charity bicycle rides (why I've not been as active on-line this last few weeks - but each time we sign up to ride in these events - we have to pay an initial fee to cover the sponsor/admin costs. Nominal set fee and we have to guarantee at least so much cash from our sponsors too - usually famiy . friends.. work colleagues.. who give us all a set agreed amount which they can afford for the long rides.
Other events will charge tickets.. have sponsors and include some element of cost in budget .. although the argument with some cycling road races (official ones) do not have the problem with the council charging them.. more with the amount the police are charging per the CW articles IG has posted up in "Cycling Forum".
This sounds more like an excuse to deter folk from protesting.
The 37 comments so far on the story show quite clearly what the good folk of Manchester and Salford really think. (You can tell which munch muesli too ..
)
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