CAMP TITNORE, the eco-protest site near Worthing, West Sussex, is celebrating its second birthday on Saturday May 24.
To mark the occasion, a party is being held on the steps of Worthing Town Hall in Chapel Road.
The event has been given added poignancy by scenes at the recent election count, when heavy-handed security and police threw out Save Titnore Woods! candidate Dawn Smith and her supporters.
Campaigners are inviting anyone who supports the camp and the wider campaign to turn up in party mode – with hats, balloons, cake and music. One said: “The campaign has, of course, being going a lot more than two years, but the extraordinary achievement of those who have kept alive a continued presence in the woods since May 2006 just cannot be over-emphasised.
“Not every one is able to get down to the camp to express their support, so this event in the town centre is a great opportunity to show the protesters you are with them in spirit.
“Let’s make a real effort to celebrate in style and communicate our ongoing determination to see off this threat to Worthing’s environmental heritage!”
The incident at the count happened on Friday May 2, when Dawn, who was standing for the Stop Durrington’s Overdevelopment – Save Titnore’s Trees party, in the borough’s Northbrook ward, was arrested after a row at Worthing’s Assembly Hall, apparently for “disorderly behaviour”.
She was thrown to the ground by police, held down with her hands behind her back, knelt on and handcuffed, then held for four hours at Durrington police station – all for objecting to her supporters being violently ejected from the count.
Dawn, who has not been charged, explained that there was confusion over the passes for her guests at the count, who included Titnore eco-campers. Names she had registered did not seem to have been recorded, in an official bungle.
Other people, considered of “respectable” appearance, were waved through by security but they demanded ID from her supporters.
While she went to try and sort the error, some of the campers wandered through into the hall and were attacked and physically thrown out by security staff in what she called a “complete over-reaction”.
Dawn objected vocally. She said: “I shouted at them. The only reason they did this was because the guys had dreadlocks. I’m not going to stand by and see someone jumped on.”