What began as a trickle of protest is now a torrent

IT was always expected the Make Poverty History march would bring chaos to Edinburgh, but few could have foreseen the extent and duration of the programme of road closures required to accommodate the protest. Some will say police and council are being overly cautious, others will describe their attempts to isolate the route as thorough.

Princes Street will remain closed for 33 hours from Friday evening until Sunday morning and there are restrictions on main roads along the march route as well as on a host of feeder roads.

The restrictions will be felt by all that use private and public transport not least the hundreds of businesses that will be prevented from loading and unloading for long periods.

There are contrasting views on how deeply the city will be affected by this. Transport leader Councillor Andrew Burns advises that despite the closures, life and business will go on, while the man from the Automobile Association warns stay away from the city centre.

Certainly in terms of restriction of movement the city's inhabitants will not have experienced such constraints since the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference 1n 1997.

But what happens around July 2 is only the first taste of what is to come. Princes Street may yet re-open at dawn on Sunday to be closed later in the day for the planned Stop the War march. Other associated road closures may yet be announced. The following day the planned demonstration by anarchists - The Carnival for Full Enjoyment - may spark more closures as may the Wednesday's G8 Live event and rally. The council expects to announce how it plans to deal with these events later this week.

There is little that can be done at this stage to affect the likely outcomes of these protests. What began as a trickle of protest in the city has become a raging torrent which threatens to engulf us for the best part of a week.

Much planning has, and is, going on by the city and police into how best to control the floodwaters by erecting walls of sandbags in the form of street closures in a bid to divert these protests down safe channels.

Whether enough has, or is, being done is impossible to estimate at this stage. The city is dealing with what is an unknown quantity and G8 history has shown that much may yet depend on the chemical mix between protesters and the authorities as to how things finally pan out. Let's just all stay positive for the meantime and hope for the best.