Impressions on the first day of the “Take Back Our Pavements” campaign from Richard Morgan, NSRA Chair.
Tuesday 6 January 2026 – Morning
15 residents carrying protest placards stood on the kerb on Shottery (Hathaway Lane side) and around the bend into Shottery Road towards The Stratford Girls Grammar School . At around 8:45 am, a coach carrying students to the school became became stuck behind a parked car outside Orchard Side, and traffic driving towards the Bell Inn was unable to pass the coach because the protesters prevented vehicles driving onto the pavement. As a result, Shottery was gridlocked for around 15 minutes, with long queues of traffic in both directions. The police monitoring the protest adopted a hands-off approach and did not intervene other than to warn drivers who were verbally abusing the protesters.
Tuesday, 6 January 2026 – Afternoon
A different situation was encountered when the coaches returned to collect the students in the afternoon. There was an unusually light density of traffic in both directions. We learned that parents were collecting students at the Bell Inn car park. Also the police monitoring the afternoon protest adopted a different strategy. When School coaches entered Shottery they stopped traffic at the school travelling towards the Bell Inn.
This demonstrated the need for traffic control at these times to prevent traffic travelling towards the Bell Inn from mounting and driving on the pavement to get around the oncoming school coaches and other traffic. NSRA has long advocated (among other measures) use of part time traffic signals at School drop off and collection times to prevent traffic driving on the pavement.
Although the gridlock seen in the morning was avoided in Shottery, there was still gridlock at the Bell Inn roundabout, where coaches were unable to negotiate the roundabout without mounting the pavement.