The People

When the Council advertised the fact that they were planning to dispose of the land and invited objections, in less than a week SOAG presented a petition of almost 4000 signatures. It said:

"I urge the Council to keep the Ashton Institute and all the land within Ashton Gardens free from property developers"

We also provided 4,000 individually signed letters of objection before the closing date.

Altogether we handed in almost 8,000 objections, but the Council set them aside and sold the land

When Fylde Borough Council met to consider the granting of Outline Planning Permission, there were so many letters of complaint that the Chief Executive said he would not read them all out as it would take too long.

In the first protest back in 1998, 44,000 people objected to a quarter of the gardens being sold for a car park. 1,000 people took to the streets of sedate St Annes in a protest march