words by Carol King
Italians are set to take to the streets on Sunday, 9th September in the English town of Bedford in protest at the closure of the local sportello consolare Italian consulate offices, at the end of this month.
The closure forms part of the Italian Government’s cost cutting measures and consulate staff will move to London some 50 miles away. The loss of a service that handles paperwork from passport renewals to stamping wills for the 16,000-strong community of Italians will hit older members the most since the journey to London facility via train and tube followed by a walk is hardest for them.
What riles Bedford’s Italians the most is that they see the closure as a false saving since the consulate makes more money from handling locals’ affairs than it costs to run. The closure is another blow for them as the BBC dropped local radio show Mondo Italiano in the summer. It was the BBC’s only Italian show and had been on-air since 1985. Italians make up 20% of the town’s population and they started to arrive in Bedford in the 1950s when a building boom created a shortage of labour in the Bedford brickworks industry.
Italian Associations in Bedfordshire and the East Anglian area, including COMITES, Associazione Molisana Bedfordshire, ACLI, Circolo Di Pietro-Bedford, Patronato INAS (FNP) and Voce Scolastica Italiana, are organising the march. Local councillor Sue Oliver said: “Bedford’s Labour group stands shoulder to shoulder with the town’s Italian community in opposing this needless and short-sighted closure. Our councillors represent thousands of people who will be deeply affected by this decision and as such, we are calling on the Italian Government to postpone its decision to allow all options to be considered”.
An estimated 1,000 people are expected to join the protest that starts at 11am at Bedford railway station. It will pass the Italian Church of Santa Francesca Cabrini, the Italian consular office and a statue of Giuseppe Martignetti – all examples of just how much the town is England’s Little Italy. It remains to be seen if the protesters will be as effective as Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Spedizione dei Mille (Expedition of the Thousand).
