15 March 2010
Legal action has been started to try to evict “Camp Cuckoo” campaigners who are fighting a road scheme in Essex.
Protesters are camped on Priory Crescent, Southend, opposing a £5m Cuckoo Corner road improvement scheme on the burial site of a Saxon King.
Southend Borough Council said court papers had been served on protesters.
The king has been dubbed the “King of Bling” after archaeologists found gold at the 8th Century site and an earlier protest camp was named after him.
Protesters have put up six tents at Cuckoo Corner roundabout — at the opposite end of Priory Crescent where the previous camp, dubbed “Camp Bling”, was set up five years ago.
‘Significant disruption’
The council said the Cuckoo Corner scheme aimed to improve the flow of traffic at one of the town’s worst bottlenecks.
Lorraine Butler, interim head of enterprise, said: “The aim of the legal proceedings is to take back possession of the land so we can begin work.
“The protesters have no right to be there and their actions have already caused significant disruption.
“Peaceful protest is everybody’s right in a democratic society but any action that hinders the progress of the approved scheme is not acceptable.
“Their actions have left us with no alternative but to resort to legal proceedings to ensure we can progress with the scheme.”
18th March 2010 — possession order granted to council in the morning, protestors leave site in afternoon.
Mainstream videos: 1 | 2
20th March 2010 — trees felled from 8am-noon, with bailiff team present but no opposition to deal with in trees, and Chargecrest Security to keep people away
-> “Saturday was horrific and we are still trying to come to terms with what we saw and the way we were goaded and ridiculed and physically and verbally abused all day by the Council’s hired yobs. However, we know that we reached a great number of the public who were driving past and seeing the terrible things that the Council and its thugs were doing and they way in which we were conducting our peaceful protest. We had so much support from the public and we are still standing and will re-group and fight on even stronger than before. If it hadn’t been for SKIPP and our protest, the Council would’ve got away with this terrible destruction relatively scott-free so I really believe that we turned a terrible tragedy into a small victory and we are even more determined now to continue our fight to get those evil, corrupt “people” out of power.”
Video from tree-chopping day — protestors tractor-dive