Road Wars

Road Shorts

Squall 10, Summer 1995, pg. 24.

Minister Sanctions Car Protest

Steven Norris, Junior Transport Minister recently stated that pedestrian groups were “within their rights” to push cars parked on pavements back into the road.

Norris, speaking at a local authority launch of “Don’t Choke Britain”, went on to admonish anti-car group Reclaim The Streets saying: “They appear to want to return Central London to a park-like pastoral calm.”

He Continued: “The Pedestrian Association is not simply the elder chapter of Reclaim the Streets, what they are doing is very sensibly pointing out that many short journeys do not have to be made by car.”

Road Activist Award

Emma Must, who helps run Alarm UK, has been named as one of six “environmental heroes” by the Goldman Environmental Foundation in San Francisco. Must was imprisoned during the protests on Twyford Down for defying an injunction and went on to help set up Road Alert! through Alarm UK, now co-ordinating over a hundred anti-roads campaigns. The Award, worth £47,000, will be spent on the campaign.

DoT Backs Down

The DoT has finally backed down from suing 76 protesters for £1.9 million over protests at Twyford Down. Instead it is to sue for £1,000 per head. Criticised in Parliament as a waste of money, even if the DoT is successful the recovered funds will not pay for the legal fees incurred in bringing the case to court.

A299 Thanet Way

Is a popular tourist road, taking Londoners to Margate in the summer. A bypass is being planned that will destroy beautiful areas around Herne Bay, as well as rural land around Whitstable. According to Road Alert! few local people are aware of the extent of the plans and, as they rightly observe, £65 million is a lot of money for a “local” scheme. A Beltane gathering kicked off what one protester said, “could be the campaign of the summer”.