| About Us : The History |
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| Twenty-five years ago, when we first moved into the area, there were no barriers across Bushwood or Mornington Roads and traffic, including heavy lorries, used these two roads, together with Lister Road, as a "rat run" to escape from the High Road to the Green Man Roundabout. |
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As an experiment the Council put in two temporary barriers.
After a while,
however, they deemed the barriers unnecessary and planned to remove them.
Residents in Bushwood and Lister decided to mount a protest and they came to all
the houses in the area inviting people to a meeting one weekend at the Bushwood
barrier.
Such a large number turned up that the owners of 14 Bushwood invited
the meeting to move into their loft room.
Here it was decide that the local
residents would leaflet the Council, etc. attend Council meetings and pressurise
them to keep the barriers.
The residents won! |
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However it had not been easy to get a group of people together and so it was
decide that, since a group now existed, it should be formed into a proper
Residents Association so that, should another problem arise, there would be a
band of people ready to deal with it - this Association became BARA.
In those early years BARA had a flourishing social side, which proved a great way for neighbours
to get to know one another.
There was an annual Christmas party for children
with Father Christmas and a present for each one, summer picnics, children's
sports days, a Valentine party, day trips out by coach to Walton-on-the-Naze and
to Calais, a drinks evening for adults round the Bushwood Barrier, quiz nights,
etc.
Member Mrs Violet Eddy well remembers the beginnings of BARA. She writes:
"In the mid-1970s the late Joan Dearth of Leybourne Road (and later
Bushwood), myself and a few others decided we'd had enough of 600 cars an hour
using Bushwood and Lister Road as a rat-run before the two 'temporary' barriers
were installed. One pedestrian had been fatally injured by a car in Bushwood and
there were numerous accidents.
"One very cold January/February a group of us took a petition
round to every household in the area asking them to protest against the planned
removal of the barriers.
"Our people eventually went to County Hall a couple of times when the
subject was on the agenda. We won the day and were congratulated by the Court
Chairman for being such a 'well-behaved group' - the best they'd had in years,
with no interruptions during the proceedings.
"I feel so proud that BARA has flourished over the years. Long may it
carry on." |
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BARA is not quite so 'social' these days but we are still very active. It should be remembered that the formation of BARA came out of the need to preserve a group ready to fight anything in our area that was detrimental and it is essential that this is not lost.
Long may BARA flourish! |
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