Conservative Party Conference Manchester: People’s Assembly Protest planned- full route published

The Conservative Party Conference will this year take place in Manchester, with around 10,000 people expected to attend over the four day event. The conference gets underway on October 1 and will finish on October 4. 

Taking place at Manchester Central near to Castlefield Arena, the conference will see various speeches and workshops take place, attended by Conservative Party members. On the opening day of the conference, there will also be an organised protest march. 

Organised by the People’s Assembly, the march will begin at All Saints Park at 12.30pm, then proceed along Oxford Road, turn left onto Chepstow Street, then Whitworth Street, Liverpool Road and it will terminate at Castlefield Arena at 2pm. This will see the march go down Oxford Road and through Deansgate. 

The protest could lead to disruption on roads through the city centre. Transport for Greater Manchester have said that to allow for the safe passing of crowds, a number of road closures will be in place in the city centre. They also expect journey times on surrounding roads to be longer as a result of traffic being diverted away.

Greater Manchester Police have said they will be policing the march. GMP’s Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said: “As always we are expecting a number of peaceful demonstrations to take place over the course of the event and are working closely with conference organisers and partners to ensure demonstrations take place with minimal disruption to the wider public.

“GMP will always seek to facilitate the right to peacefully protest, we will not stand for any incidents of intimidation or abuse, and officers will take swift, appropriate action against anyone breaking the law.“We welcome regular communication between ourselves, delegates and members of the public and I would ask anyone who has issues to raise them directly to one of our many officers at the conference, so that we can address concerns immediately and take effective action. Finally, I’d like to welcome all of our guests to Manchester, I hope you all enjoy your time in our vibrant, friendly city.”