THE Oxford Mail has rarely, if ever, seen the amount of emails and messages about a single subject in one day that we saw on Wednesday about plans to knock down an old bridge in Horspath.

Our inboxes were bombarded with urgent messages from people in this small village absolutely incandescent about the idea that an old, disused railway bridge should be demolished.

So enraged were they that many of them defied the national lockdown in place to stop the spread of coronavirus and marched en masse to the bridge where they then had their photo taken.

Yesterday, they told us they were threatened with police action if they tried the same again.

A large part of the fury seemed to stem from the fact that they had seemingly found out about this plan with no notice and no consultation with them.

It’s a funny coincidence that we were warning in this column just a few days ago about the dangers of authorities trying to push through their own plans without sufficient consultation (specifically that piece was in reference to Oxfordshire County Council pushing plans for parking permit rules across the whole of Oxford while we are still dealing with the global pandemic).

Well, we applaud the Horspath residents – at least in principle.

While the rest of us might not be able to see exactly what it is they love so much about their old bridge, or share their love for it, we all know exactly what it feels like to feel so passionately about something that we think is an integral part of our local area, whether that's green space, a community centre or just a beloved old shop that's been there forever.

Sometimes, things have to change for the greater good – but sometimes they don't, and we do simply have to stand up to the powers that be and say 'no – this is our area and we're going to decide what happens in it'.

However, we're still not sure that protesting counts as essential exercise.