When Marie McGiveron and other campaigners were fighting against the creation of the inner-city ring-road, a double decker bus would be hired out to help generate support.
“We'd drive into Fontenoy Gardens and shout ‘come on, get on this bus we're going to lobby’” Marie tells the ECHO about the protests that took place in the late 70s. The plans proposed an eight lane “motorway”, as Marie puts it, that would sever off Vauxhall and Scotland Road, taking with it homes and land that was earmarked for new housing.
As the bus rolled in, the curtains would start twitching within the now demolished tenements on the edge of the city centre, where Leeds Street and Scotland Road now gradually blend into one. “People would be hiding behind the curtains,” Marie adds, “but you've got to whip that support up and it's the community that does it.”
