Archived press release

Newbury tree protestors fight high court eviction bid

3 January 1996

Protesters fighting the Government's controversial decision to bulldoze ahead with the A34 Newbury Bypass will, on Thursday, 4 January, contest an application by the Department of Transport (DoT) for Possession Orders[1] entitling the Department to start the first evictions of three of the eight protests camps along the bypass route [2].

The case will be heard in the Royal Courts of Justice (the High Court),The Strand, London in Room E103 at 2.30pm in front of a Master in Chambers. Representatives from the camps, their solicitors and supporters will be outside the court at 2pm with banners to highlight the case.

If Orders are granted to the DoT this could herald the first evictions and clearance work along the route of the controversial road scheme, involving the destruction of some of the most beautiful and protected countryside in Southern England [3]. Protesters against the scheme from local campaign group Third Battle of Newbury and experienced activists who have joined them from around the country promise a campaign of civil disobedience that will eclipse even that seen at Twyford Down.

Protester Helen Morgan, a qualified conservationist, said from her treehouse 60 ft above the SSSI:

"We want traffic reduction - not tree reduction. We will defend this countryside in the courts and in the trees."

Simon Festing, Transport Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

"The Government is preparing to destroy a landscape thousands of years old simply to allow more traffic to clog our roads. The bypass is not the solution to Newbury's traffic problems. Public transport and traffic management solutions would be far more effective at a fraction of the cost".

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Papers notifying the three camps of the court case were served by private detectives on Friday 22nd December, leaving campaign solicitors with almost no working days to prepare for the case. Representatives from the camps and their solicitors will be asking the Master for an adjournment for this reason.

[2] The three camps are at the River Kennet Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Elmore Woods and Reddings Copse which is close to where the First Battle of Newbury site of 1643 is.

The three camps all have extensive networks of treehouses high up in the branches of the trees. The camp along the bank of the stunning Kennet River Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) boasts a treehouse which can sleep 20 people and is perched where a 200 metre wide embankment would rip through the landscape. If Possession Orders are granted by the Court, protesters will defend the trees using peaceful direct action (3).

Another three camps along the route have since received Notices to Vacate from the Department of Transport but have not been given a court date yet.

[3] The Newbury Bypass (described by the Department of Transport's own Landscape Advisory Committee as "one of the most environmentally controversial road schemes in recent history") would run 9 miles through the spectacular Berkshire countryside to the west of Newbury. It would damage three SSSI's, a number of local nature reserves, two civil war battlesites, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and twelve archaeological sites. Campaigners against the road argue that it will not even solve the towns traffic problems but will generate greater traffic volumes and more congestion.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust