ANGRY March residents have vowed to sit on the fountain to stop it from being moved as part of a proposed redevelopment of Broad Street.

A leisure group from the Oliver Cromwell Hotel, March, is unhappy about the alternative layout for the end of Broad Street put forward in the March Town Transport Strategy.

The plans include removing the traffic lights and replacing them with a roundabout, narrowing the road and moving the Memorial Fountain, built in 1911 to commemorate the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.

Irene Moone, one of the group’s members, said: “We are going to go up there and sit on the fountain to stop this from happening. We will not be moved.

“What’s the point of moving it a few yards.”

Sharan Barnett believes it would be wrong to move one of March’s most recognisable monuments.

She said: “I think the fountain is part of March’s heritage. I can’t understand why they want to move it anyway.

“In my honest opinion before the traffic lights were put in the traffic flowed better.”

Several ladies echoed her view that the traffic lights should be turned off.

One lady said: “I would just like to see the lights turned off, not the fountain moved.”

Another lady added: “In the evening there’s not much traffic so you don’t need the lights.”

Mrs Moone is concerned that reducing the road to one lane would cause traffic jams.

She said: “I think it would be a nightmare if the road went down to one lane. At the moment you can turn left nice and easily but this plan will cause lots of traffic.

“It would be better if they kept the two lanes and did away with the lights.”

Mrs Moone could not understand why a larger public space on either side of the road was necessary.

She said: “The pavements are already big enough. How much walking space do people need. There are hardly any shops down there anyway.”

But one lady spoke out in support of the proposals.

She said: “As long as they don’t move the fountain too far I quite like the idea of a roundabout because I don’t like the lights.”