[Update, 5pm, Thursday 17 January: "Base camp" finally evicted this morning. "Decoy Pond" camp still unevicted and accessible.]
The second day of the eviction of the anti-road protest camps in Crowhurst (“Base Camp” and “Decoy Pond” camp – see maps below) has begun this morning, with activists still locked-on up trees and down tunnels.
Please protest, support and publicise!
As at 9.33am: access to the “Decoy Pond” camp is still possible; “Base Camp” is now surrounded by fencing, but activists are on the periphery and a legal observer is still on site inside the cordon. Five people were arrested yesterday (Wednesday 16 January), of whom 4 have now (9.33am, Thursday 17 Jan) been released.
Please note: This is only the end of the beginning for the protests against the Bexhill Hastings Link Road (BHLR)! We urgently need to replenish our finances following the last month of protests, so please consider giving a donation, using the “donate” button on our web-site and Facebook page, if you are able.
Press release Combe Haven Defenders [1]
Thursday 17 January
Contact 07926 423 033
ROAD PROTEST EVICTION ENTERS SECOND DAY AS LAWYERS SEEK 1066 INJUNCTION
Campaigners in trees and tunnels as total number of arrests reaches seventeen
Thursday 17 January, Crowhurst: The eviction of two protest camps against the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) enters its second day today, as lawyers seek a halt to preparations for the Road on the grounds that Combe Haven (where the camps are situated) may be the site of the Battle of Hastings.
Five campaigners were arrested during the first day of the eviction yesterday, Wednesday 16 January. Other campaigners are still locked-on up trees and down tunnels at the two camps.
The camps, which have been in place since 21 December, are located on the proposed route of the BHLR close to Adam’s Farm, Crowhurst [2]. The peaceful protests against the road– which have now been running for a month, with 17 arrests – have seized national attention over the past week [3].
Tree-felling work for the road started on 14 December 2012 and represents the first significant work on the highly-controversial 3 mile £100m road, one of over forty “zombie roads” that were declared dead years ago but have now been resuscitated as part of as part of Britain’s largest road-building programme in 25 years [4, 5].
In an interesting parallel development, Bexhill-based anti-road group BLINKRR yesterday publicised legal moves seeking an injunction to halt the road based on evidence that Crowhurst is the true site of the Battle of Hastings [6].
Contact 07926 423 033
NOTES
[1] www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] Nearby postcode TN33 9AY. For map see http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/camp-groundrules-directions/
[3] http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/
[4] See ‘Controversial ‘zombie roads’ scheme to be resuscitated’, Guardian, 10 October 2012, http://tinyurl.com/zombieroads
[5] http://bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report
[6] http://www.blinkrr.org/downloads/ESCC-15.1.13.pdf. For more info contact BLINKRR on 07989 781199