Woman arrested as Bowstring Bridge protest ends
The protester, who identified herself as a mother and grandmother called Karen, was escorted from the bridge by police at 6pm.
Members of the public who had gathered at the site, in Duns Lane in Leicester’s West End, cheered her as she was led away. Her health was assessed before she was arrested.
The 39-year-old had breached a razor wire cordon and chained herself to a main girder. She said she acted because she believed demolition was about to reach a point where damage would be irreversible.
The bridge is being knocked down by contractors working for Leicester City Council to make way for a new De Montfort University sports centre.
Speaking earlier in the day, Karen said she was staging her protest to convince the council to halt the demolition while the Government considered an appeal for the bridge to be listed.
Six previous requests to English Heritage for the bridge to be protected have been refused.
She said: “We have done all the legal protests for the past five weeks.
“We’re just hoping now that the Government reverses the decision on listing the bridge. This is a cause I care very deeply about.”
Stuart Simmonds, of the campaign to save the bridge and the pub, said: “We’re all very proud of Karen. We told her she wouldn’t be letting anyone down by agreeing to come off the bridge. She has halted the demolition work for a day and hopefully that will give us enough time for the Government to reach a decision.”
A Leicestershire police spokeswoman said: “A 39-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and she remains in custody.”
The spokeswoman said the protester had come down voluntarily.
Earlier, Gwen Houlihan, of Rowley Fields, called by to watch the protest. She said: “I hope she achieves what we all want and the bridge is left alone. I’m full of admiration for her.”
Leicester Civic Society last month asked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to review English Heritage’s refusal to list the bridge.
Stuart Bailey, of the civic society, accused the council of “arrogance” for allowing demolition to continue while the Government was considering the case.
The council’s director of regeneration, highways and transportation, Jeff Miller, said: “Applications to list Bowstring Bridge have been made unsuccessfully on six previous occasions, the last time being in August 2009.
“This latest appeal was only made in mid-October, two months after the last application was rejected, and by which time work was under way. It would incur a substantial daily cost to stop the work at that stage, so it has progressed as planned.”
The future of the neighbouring Pump and Tap pub is in doubt, although the university, which owns both, yesterday said it still had no firm plans for the pub.
A spokeswoman said the progress of demolition work was a matter for the council.
Watch YouTube video of the protest.
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