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Council gives protesters against Portsmouth Naked Bike Ride the bum's rush

News comes as events in Manchester and York get warm reception

The Portsmouth leg of the World Naked Bike Ride will take place this Thursday after the city council insisted it was a police matter after it received a petition signed by 1,500 locals seeking to stop the ride. Similar rides held in other British cities last weekend have received a warmer reception from police and locals and passed off without incident.

The Manchester Evening News reported that 150 cyclists there had taken part in a naked ride through the city centre, the sixth time it has been held there, and that police had adopted “a laid back approach.”

Organiser Sean Fitton told the newspaper: “The police were lovely. They escorted us all the way and even took us to some parts of the city that were not on the planned route – they were fantastic."

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police added: "We did receive a couple of complaints – one person said they were left ‘uncomfortable’ by seeing six naked 60-year-olds in all shapes and sizes.

"But there were no arrests. The police attitude was whatever floats your boat."

In York, local newspaper The Press welcomed last Saturday’s ride there with a good-natured editorial.

“Saturday’s naked bike ride sent as strong a message as the poverty report, but in a fun way,” it said.

“It was the sixth running of the event, and riders set off from Millennium Bridge to raise awareness of cycling and encourage people to choose more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

“As ever, cyclists daubed themselves with logos or showed only a certain amount of flesh.

“Others, though, were happy to express their barefaced cheek.
Let’s hope they remembered their factor 15.”

The thought of cyclists baring all as they ride through city streets appears to have met a frostier reception from some locals in Portsmouth, however.

There, the petition was organised by 38-year-old church employee Sarah Carter, who told Portsmouth News: “We’ve had a lot of mums signing, as well as members of the Christian and Muslim communities and surprisingly lots of university students.

“All we’re asking is for them to put their clothes on and not upset or distress residents.”

She added that council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson had turned down an offer to meet her yesterday, maintaining that it was an issue for the police to deal with.

Ian Henden, organiser of the ride in Portsmouth, which like its sister events is designed to celebrate the human body and highlight the vulnerability of cyclists on the road as well as oil dependency, told the BBC: "The people in Portsmouth have been stirred up, we feel by a small core, of which Sarah Carter is one."

He added: "There is a very common phrase in the cycling world known as the SMIDSY - sorry mate I didn't see you - it usually happens when a car or lorry driver has knocked a cyclist off their bike, but they'll certainly see us on Friday."

The BBC report adds that nudity is not in itself an offence where there is no intention to cause alarm or distress to another person.

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary told the BBC: "We've been in contact with the event organisers who have assured us they do not intend to cause alarm or distress. Police will be on duty for the ride to prevent or deal with any apparent offences reported."

Besides Portsmouth, Manchester and York, other towns and cities in the UK participating in the World Naked Bike Ride this year are Southampton (10 June) Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter and London (11 June), Brighton (12 June) and Bristol (19 June). Full details can be found on the World Naked Bike Ride UK website.

 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

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Bikeylikey | 12 years ago
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Dawn - you don't want to see 'men's bits bobbling about', but you do want to make 'any stand'? So that's your objection, you want stands not wobbles. Ooo you are awful. But I like you.

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piesnotpetrol | 12 years ago
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There must be a helmet gag in here somewhere?

...or perhaps i'm now being more immature than dawn.

Avatar
Daclu Trelub | 12 years ago
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Nice troll, Dawn.

Avatar
dawnpike | 12 years ago
0 likes

This event isn’t going ahead is it, i think it is absolutely disgusting. They are not serious are they. What of society have we become if this goes ahead, with each and every day we seem to be going back to the stone ages, it’s terrible. I don’t want to see Men’s bits bobbling up and down and just what about if any children see it will poison their mind.

I am so outraged It must be stopped,if it isn’t I think us women and men who object should go along and protest. I don’t know how we should protest maybe we should go along at the start point and either laugh or wiggle our little finger at the men, that will get them thinking and hopefully they will back out or not go the following year if it does go ahead a second year that is. So what do others think of my planned suggestion of the protest?

Let make any stand and get this event stopped once and for all!

Dawn

Avatar
David cycling t... replied to dawnpike | 12 years ago
0 likes

.

Avatar
David cycling t... replied to dawnpike | 12 years ago
0 likes
dawnpike wrote:

This event isn’t going ahead is it, i think it is absolutely disgusting. They are not serious are they. What of society have we become if this goes ahead, with each and every day we seem to be going back to the stone ages, it’s terrible. I don’t want to see Men’s bits bobbling up and down and just what about if any children see it will poison their mind.

I am so outraged It must be stopped,if it isn’t I think us women and men who object should go along and protest. I don’t know how we should protest maybe we should go along at the start point and either laugh or wiggle our little finger at the men, that will get them thinking and hopefully they will back out or not go the following year if it does go ahead a second year that is. So what do others think of my planned suggestion of the protest?

Let make any stand and get this event stopped once and for all!

Dawn

Grow up.

Avatar
BikerBob replied to dawnpike | 12 years ago
0 likes
dawnpike wrote:

This event isn’t going ahead is it, i think it is absolutely disgusting. They are not serious are they. What of society have we become if this goes ahead, with each and every day we seem to be going back to the stone ages, it’s terrible. I don’t want to see Men’s bits bobbling up and down and just what about if any children see it will poison their mind.

I am so outraged It must be stopped,if it isn’t I think us women and men who object should go along and protest. I don’t know how we should protest maybe we should go along at the start point and either laugh or wiggle our little finger at the men, that will get them thinking and hopefully they will back out or not go the following year if it does go ahead a second year that is. So what do others think of my planned suggestion of the protest?

Let make any stand and get this event stopped once and for all!

Dawn

1st Post? You're having a laugh  4

Avatar
londonplayer | 12 years ago
0 likes

I hear that there is a lot of nudity, sex and debauchery in the Bible too. Perhaps she should censor that first before worrying about a few naked cyclists on only one day a year.

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handlebarcam | 12 years ago
0 likes
Quote:

38-year-old church employee

Hmm...

//t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROgH1WeutbFqRfks6SgEJTCTYuNj6wy3I6573gd9NWY56L3QZd)

As long as Hampshire Police don't decide to have a crack-down, this is good news.

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