Council rejects youth group's anti-racism display

Urchfont Parish Council bought the village phone box two years ago and its is used for temporary displays

A youth group has accused a parish council which rejected its plan for a Black Lives Matter (BLM) inspired display of "pretending racism doesn't exist".

Polly Maton, 19, and Emily Kinnaird, 16, asked to use the phone box in Urchfont, Wiltshire, for their project.

Their plans attracted 20 letters of complaint from villagers and were rejected at a council meeting.

They said the phone box should be used "only for local community purposes".

Emily, a member of the Youth of Urchfont group, said they wanted to create their display in the decommissioned village phone box which was bought by the council in 2018.

She said residents seemed to believe "racism doesn't exist" in the village of about 1,000 people, and was "a subject only for those it directly affects".

"Until we change this were not going to defeat it. We are trying to raise awareness and get a discussion going but no one would even meet us or agree to discuss ideas," she said.

'Crossed wires'

Polly said she felt those who opposed the plan were "concerned about the more political aspects of the BLM movement rather than what we wanted, which was a cultural and historical display about anti-racism".

"I completely respect the parish council for wanting to represent the people of the village but I think it maybe came down to crossed wires."

Parish council chairman Graham Day said the council "tries to represent interests across the community".

"We had substantial input from people in the parish and after a lengthy debate, councillors felt it was best to maintain the phone box only for local community purposes."

Youth of Urchfont is now in discussions with Wessex Museums about creating a display to go on show to the public later this year.