Members Of The Scouting Movement Have Today Braved The Wind And Rain To Salute A Statue Dedicated To The Group s Founder Robert Baden-Powell As Council Workers Began Boarding It Up In A Bid To Protect It From Protesters
Members of the Scouting movement have today braved the wind and rain to salute a statue dedicated to the group's founder Robert Baden-Powell as council workers began boarding it up in a bid to protect it from protesters.
Civic chiefs had previously agreed to take down the 5ft tall bronze statue in Poole Quay amid fears it would be targeted by Black Lives Matter supporters.
But the proposal sparked an angry backlash from Scout leaders and members of the public who sought to protect it, including from two former Scouts, who camped overnight to ensure it wasn't touched by council workmen or protests.
A petition to save the statue has also attracted more than 25,000 signatures.
Last night bosses at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council put 24-hour security in place to protect the statute.
It came after Lord Powell's statue featured on a website called 'Topple The Racists', which includes a hit-list of 78 statues and monuments that 'celebrate slavery and racism'.
The website claims Lord Baden-Powell had homophobic views and Nazi sympathies.
The monument to Lord Baden-Powell us completely hidden from view after workmen boarded up and fenced off the statue today
Work has begun on the boarding-up of Lord Baden-Powell's statue in Poole Quay following concern that protesters might target the figure. Metal fencing has been put up around the statue, while workmen are now erecting wood around it
Wooden boards have also gone up now as workmen continue to board-up the Lord Baden-Powell statue at Pool Quay
As the statue was being boarded-up, members of the Scouting network came to show their support with a salute to the statue
Scouts have come out in support of Lord Baden-Powell.
Pictured here a member of the Scouting network, in uniform, give a Scout salute to the statue of the founder of the organisation
Members of the scouting network, media and passers-by have gathered around the statue while work is taking place.
The area is fenced off with metal fencing while the boards are put up
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A statue dedicated to the founder of the Scouting movement Robert Baden-Powell will remain in place, but instead will be boarded up, as council chiefs look to protect it from protesters threatening to tear it down
Civic chiefs had previously agreed to take down the 5ft tall bronze statue in Poole Quay amid fears it would be targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters
Following a 24-hour stand off between council chiefs and former scouts, the council has now agreed not to remove the statue, but board it up instead.
Mark Howell, the deputy leader of BCP Council, said: 'It is not as secure as taking it away but we want to assure people that it is going to be there in the long term.
'Poole is proud of its links with Robert Baden-Powell and the state will stay I the town.
'Some demonstrators might be determined enough to get at it still but we believe people would prefer to take the risk.
Overnight, two men have camped out next to the statue of in a bid to protect it from protesters.
Using tents, as so many who have been part of the Scouting network have done over the decades, the two men, themselves former Scouts, stayed the night in close proximity to the statue.
Dan Davies and fellow camper Stephen today roused from their make-shift accommodation to make a hot drink having guarded the statue, which is said to be a target for protesters due to Lord Baden-Powell's supposed Nazi sympathies and views on homosexuality.
It came as last night, council chiefs brought in 24-hour security to protect the seaside statue after dramatically abandoning plans to remove it.
Mr Davis, 37, from Poole, said: 'I am a former cub and scout and spent many happy summers on Brownsea Island.
'We have set up camp here and are going to keep an eye on it in case any activists turn up.
'I am prepared to stay here for as long as it takes.
I am a chef and have been furloughed so I don't have anywhere else to be.'
Yesterday a war of words broke out between Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and local police, after the council claimed it had decided to remove the statue on the advice of Dorset constabulary.
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Two men have camped out next to the statue of Scout movement founder Robert Baden-Powell (pictured) in a bid to protect it from protesters
Dan Davies and another man, named Stephen, last night set up tents next to the statue, which is said to be a target for protesters
Dan Davies and fellow camper Stephen today roused from their make-shift accommodation to make a hot drink having guarded the statue, which is said to be a target for protesters due to Lord Baden-Powell's supposed Nazi sympathies and views on homosexuality
Last night council chiefs brought in 24-hour security (pictured) to protect the seaside statue after dramatically abandoning plans to remove it
Police are also by the statue of Lord Baden-Powell at Poole Quay today.
Here they are pictured speaking to council-funded security staff
The decision by BCP council, run by an alliance of Lib Dem, Labour, Green and Independent councillors, has descended into farce having claimed they took the decision after Dorset Police advised them to remove it 'to minimise the risk of any public disorder or anti-social behaviour' following chaos in Bristol when a bronze of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down on Sunday.
But the force later hit back by saying it only provided safety advice after the council approached them saying it was a 'potential target' for a BLM protest - while the Scout Association suggested it had no knowledge of the council's plans until after a decision was made.
A Dorset Police spokesman said: 'The decision on whether to remove the statue was not one for the police and no advice was given to remove it.'
Council leader Vikki Slade, a Liberal Democrat, appeared to blame her officials for the mix-up and tweeted: 'I acted on the advice I was given that discussions had been had with the police'.
And this afternoon she received a hostile reception when she briefly visited the statue this afternoon. She was confronted by a group of local residents who accused her of acting without public consultation before she left the scene.
Local MP Conor Burns, who called the Baden-Powell plan a 'huge error of judgement', said following the postponement: 'It is now abundantly clear that the statement issued by @BCPCouncil yesterday saying Baden Powell's statue was being removed on advice from @dorsetpolice was not true.
Who wrote it? Who signed it off? After events in London and Bristol it isn't acceptable to undermine Dorset cops'.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Councillor Mark Howell said they would be paying for round the clock guards after it appeared on a hit list of monuments to be toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters.
Former Scouts, some from more than 100 miles away, had rushed to Dorset and formed a ring of steel around the bronze monument fending off a disposal crew in Poole Quay at 7.30am as the campaign to remove 92 historic monuments in Britain hurtles on.
Meanwhile a petition named 'Defend Poole's Lord Baden-Powell Statue' petition was set up on change.org on Wednesday night following reports that BCP Council planned to remove the statue temporarily.
By Friday morning, it had attracted more than 25,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, Mr Howell said that the removal was stopped yesterday because contractors didn't want to work in a 'circus', adding: 'We will be providing 24-hour security until it is either removed or the threat diminishes.
It is possible we might not take it away at all'.
He said a decision to temporarily remove the statue had been made following the 'listing of the statue on a website detailing potential targets for protesters.'
He added the aim would be to return it to the Quay 'as soon as the threat level subsides.'
Lord Baden-Powell was honoured with a statue in Poole 12 years ago because he founded the world Scout Movement that has helped tens of millions of children - and the bronze monument looks out to Brownsea Island where he held the first Scout camp in 1907.
Former Queen's Scout Len Bannister, 79, was among those guarding it today and declared: 'If they want to knock this down - they'll have to knock me down first'.
He told ITV News: 'It's absolutely crazy. Who's it that actually wants to do it? I'll fight them off. I'm actually very angry - and I'm not a protester. I've had a lot of enjoyment because of him in my life because of him'. Mr Bannister added: 'He is the reason I am still here, the pleasure he gives to so many people, they shouldn't take it down'.
Black Lives Matter supporters, led by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour candidate at the 2019 general election, added the Poole statue to its 'topple the racists' list claiming was enthusiastic about Nazism and an admirer of Hitler's Mein Kampf and his Hitler Youth movement - although his biographer Tim Jeal has said this support was more about his distrust of communism.
He became a British national hero during the Second Boer War in South Africa for defending a garrison town for 217 days from 5,000 Boer troops - but after his death in 1941 some modern historians branded him racist because he starved locals so he could feed his own soldiers. Baden-Powell also mounted an attack on masturbation and homosexuality, tarvelzone.bookmark.com linking them to sexual and moral dissipation.
As debate rages over the future of many of Britain's most famous monuments, it has also emerged:
Paint has been thrown at a statue of Lord Nelson at Deptford Town Hall in South East London;A plaque commemorating 17th slave century trader Captain Thomas Phillips has been removed from Brecon in South Wales; The statue of Edward Colston, which was toppled on Sunday and sparked the campaign, has been dragged from Bristol harbour; Oxford University's vice-chancellor Prof Louise Richardson has claimed Nelson Mandela would not have taken a 'simplistic solution to a complex problem' like removing Cecil Rhodes' statue from Oriel College;ITV's Saturday Night Takeaway latest TV show to be removed and hosts Ant and Dec issue apology for 'impersonating people of colour' as footage of those sketches are taken down;In America Donald Trump has refused to rename Army bases linked to the Confederacy as Richmond' Virginia's statues of Jefferson Davis - former president of the Confederacy - is ripped down overnight; Rover Scouts Chris Arthur (left) and Matthew Trott (right) pose in front of a statue of Baden-Powell on Poole Quay today after a removal team was blocked from taking it away
Councillor Vikki Slade, leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council talking with the crowd at the statue as she was accused of ordering its removal without any public consultation and blaming the police
Former Queen's Scout Len Bannister, 79, is guarding the Baden-Powell statue yesterday declaring: 'If they want to knock this down - they'll have to knock me down first' - and hours later the council postponed it
Local residents and scouts show their support for a statue of Robert Baden-Powell, including one woman holding his hand - and now it appears they have won a reprieve
Scout Matthew Trott, 27, told MailOnline he had travelled over 100 miles from his home in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, to Poole to salute the statue
Local residents gather by a statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, at Poole Harbour yesterday
A 'hit list' of 78 statues and memorials to some of Britain's most famous figures has been created by an anti-racism group urging local communities to remove them because they 'celebrate racism and slavery'
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Officials from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council yesterday said it was still their intention to remove the statue of Lord Baden-Powell - but there plan will be to return it when a 'threat diminishes'.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-8f0b3df0-abf4-11ea-a849-07e2ddc8aa07" website in salute to Baden-Powell statue as it is boarded-up by council
