Category: Aviation and Roads

excavator set on fire at road construction site, Russia

anony­mous report, from From Rus­sia With Love:

anony­mous report, from From Rus­sia With Love:

“On wednes­day, 06/03/13, we paid a vis­it to yet anoth­er high­way expan­sion site. We looked for a decent tar­get and, upon find­ing one, put 6 litres of gaso­line wired to a timer inside dri­ver’s cock­pit. Alas, the exca­va­tor didn’t burn out com­plete­ly: as soon as flames burst out of the cock­pit, work­ers rushed over and start­ed fight­ing the fire. It appears that they have suc­ceed­ed. Nev­er­the­less, our point was made. In the fol­low­ing texts we’ll speak of ways of assem­bling a prim­i­tive clock­work timer and how to upgrade on molo­tov fuse.

A tra­di­tion­al salute to our com­rades. We express whole­heart­ed sup­port to every anar­chist who’s got in trou­ble. We hope you are read­ing this. Grant­ed, this peri­od is not the best one for you, but times will change and this will pass. Of course, no need to hope for a cloud­less future. We wish you luck and all the best.

Our sol­i­dar­i­ty to all the impris­oned com­rades from CCF, those on the run and under tri­al. To every­one who con­tin­ues to fight, who refus­es to bow down. To all our broth­ers and sis­ters who finds strength to resist. We ded­i­cate this arson to you. We see you in the streets.

- Con­spir­a­cy Cells of Fire – Rus­sia, ‘Arti­fi­cers cell’ ”

Camp Ivy pops up!

20.2.13

ivyCombe Haven Defend­ers has just got word of a new inde­pen­dent camp that has appeared just off the pub­lic foot­path between Glover’s Farm and Acton’s Farm.

20.2.13

ivyCombe Haven Defend­ers has just got word of a new inde­pen­dent camp that has appeared just off the pub­lic foot­path between Glover’s Farm and Acton’s Farm.

Camp Ivy is not on the route of the road and this means it should be rel­a­tive­ly secure from short-term evic­tion. It does, how­ev­er, pro­vide a good base for pro­tes­tors very close to the action! At the moment con­trac­tors are try­ing to com­plete exten­sive hedgerow cut­ting along the route of the pro­posed road to beat the 1st March nest­ing sea­son dead­line. This com­ing week­end 22/23 Feb will be a focus for protest against the hedgerow destruc­tion.

Folk com­ing to the camp are request­ed to be as self-suf­fi­cient as pos­si­ble, bring­ing food and water, and, if stay­ing overnight, tent and sleep­ing bag too. The Camp Ivy mobile is 07706 065623.

Camp Ivy takes shape in the trees!

To access the camp, take the pub­lic foot­path from Glover’s farm, Sid­ley, and fol­low it along the track which goes under the dis­used rail­way and then bears right towards Acton’s Farm. The camp is locat­ed dis­creet­ly in wood­land on your right, between the foot­path and the dis­man­tled rail­way. The OS map ref is TQ750097. There’s a map in the fly­er below. For the more adven­tur­ous, access is also pos­si­ble from the North on foot across the val­ley from Crowhurst.

Sid­ley is a 30 minute walk from Bex­hill train sta­tion, or reach­able by Stage­coach bus 98 (every 30 mins approx) from Hast­ings, St Leonards and Bex­hill.ivyflyer1sm

 

Combe Haven Defenders deliver tree to East Sussex County Council offices

14.2.13

Not deterred by the evic­tion of the camps on the route over thir­ty oppo­nents of the £100 mil­lion Bex­hill-Hast­ings link road vis­it­ed East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil in Lewes this w

14.2.13

Not deterred by the evic­tion of the camps on the route over thir­ty oppo­nents of the £100 mil­lion Bex­hill-Hast­ings link road vis­it­ed East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil in Lewes this week.

They did­n’t arrive emp­ty hand­ed how­ev­er– they turned up with big bits of tree, left over from the felling at Adam’s Farm. They then pro­ceed­ed to wedge them into the doors of the coun­cil offices. The coun­cil’s door­men seemed remark­ably reluc­tant to take deliv­ery of the boughs which ESCC has com­pul­so­ri­ly pur­chased.

The coun­cil came togeth­er on Tues­day for a rare meet­ing of all 49 coun­cil­lors to agree its 2013 bud­get, George Osborne will have been pleased to hear that his Tory cronies vot­ed to spend pub­lic mon­ey on the Road — which will dev­as­tatethe Combe Haven val­ley — at the same time as it is mak­ing cuts of £ 70m, which will be borne main­ly by chil­dren and vul­ner­a­ble adults.

Accord­ing to Combe Haven Defend­ers “Peter Jones, ESC­C’s bul­ly boy has aban­doned claims that the road will relieve con­ges­tion, con­struct­ing instead a myth of job cre­ation, yet the day before the bud­get meet­ing, cen­tral Gov­ern­ment announced £16m to regen­er­ate sea­side towns like Bex­hill and Hast­ings, much of it sus­tain­able and com­mu­ni­ty-based. West­min­ster expects to gen­er­ate 4000 jobs. This is more than four times total num­ber of jobs that the Link Road might hope to cre­ate at a frac­tion of the cost.”

In a fur­ther devel­op­ment, a Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion request by Hast­ings Alliance revealed that the road has yet to receive final fund­ing approval from the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment. How­ev­er, the doc­u­ments were heav­i­ly redact­ed and cam­paign­ers are demand­ing to know what oth­er embar­rass­ing infor­ma­tion has been with­held.

There are an increas­ing num­ber of autonomous affin­i­ty groups com­mit­ted to resist­ing by direct action. Combe Haven Defend­ers are now joined by a Crowhurst res­i­dents group and a local Quak­er affin­i­ty. The bat­tle over Combe Haven is only just begin­ning.

www.combehavendefenders.org.uk

Decoy Pond camp evicted but the campaign continues! (31 Jan)

Decoy Pond camp – the third of three camps that had been erect­ed on the path of the planned Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) – was final­ly evict­ed yes­ter­day (Wednes­day 30 Jan).

Decoy Pond camp – the third of three camps that had been erect­ed on the path of the planned Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) – was final­ly evict­ed yes­ter­day (Wednes­day 30 Jan).

In the end it took scores of secu­ri­ty, bailiffs and police three days to evict all of the climbers – not to men­tion tun­nel­ers, peo­ple in tripods and folk locked-on on the ground! Denied food, water and med­i­cine by East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil, the activists in the trees also had to con­tend with tor­ren­tial rain and gusts of wind of up to 54mph (Met Office fig­ure for near­by Bat­tle)! See below for pho­tos and films from yes­ter­day (30 Jan). In total, 9 peo­ple were arrest­ed, and the CHD is now help­ing to assist those charged, as they go through the court process.

After 48 days of con­tin­u­ous protest (with 28 arrests) some of those involved will prob­a­bly now be tak­ing a short but much need­ed rest. Nonethe­less, the Cam­paign con­tin­ues, with four activists in Court this morn­ing (Thurs­day 31 Jan), more news expect­ed from the High Court on Fri­day, the “Grannies’ Dinghy” action in the Val­ley this Sat­ur­day (2 Feb­ru­ary), and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for oppo­nents of the Road to get togeth­er to form groups and plan future activ­i­ties, this Sun­day (3 Feb­ru­ary: 4–6pm, The Roomz, 33–35 West­ern Road, St Leonards on Sea, TN37 6DJ).

Many more activ­i­ties and projects are also in the pipeline, so please sign the Pledge / like us on Face­book / fol­low us on Twit­ter (@combe_haven) / send a dona­tion (use the Pay­Pal but­tons on this site or send a cheque) and stay post­ed for more news on Phase 2. A luta con­tin­ua!

Day 48 (30 Jan): Decoy Pond Camp eviction continues!

[Update, 10.43am: First arrest of the day report­ed as cam­paign­er removed from tree.]

[Update, 10.43am: First arrest of the day report­ed as cam­paign­er removed from tree.]

30 Jan: Day 48 of the cur­rent phase of Combe Haven protests has begun with activists still in the trees at Decoy Pond Camp (see here for maps and direc­tions). The evic­tion con­tin­ues! East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil are still insist­ing that no food, water, blan­kets or med­i­cines be allowed up to the peo­ple high-up in the trees, who faced gusts of wind of up to 54mph last night.

Mean­while, local grand­moth­ers are mobil­is­ing to bring inflat­able dinghies to the flood­ed val­ley ths Sat­ur­day (2 Feb­ru­ary) for an aquat­ic demon­stra­tion of their sup­port for the peace­ful protests.

Five peo­ple were arrest­ed yes­ter­day, bring­ing the total num­ber of arrests so far to 26. All have now been released: one was cau­tioned, and the remain­ing four have been charged.

As we not­ed at the time of the evic­tion of “Base Camp”: This is only the end of the begin­ning for the protests against the Bex­hill Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR)!

If you can’t make it down to the Val­ley this week then please sign the Pledge / like us on Face­book / fol­low us on Twit­ter (@combe_haven) / send a dona­tion (use the Pay­Pal but­tons on this site or send a cheque) and stay post­ed for news on Phase 2!

Two short films from yesterday’s evic­tion:

*******************************************

Press Infor­ma­tion Note
Combe Haven Defend­ers [1]
30 Jan­u­ary 2013

EVICTION OF HASTINGS ANTI-ROAD CAMP ENTERS THIRD DAY
Local grand­moth­ers to show sup­port with “Grannies’ Dinghy” action this Sat­ur­day (2 Feb)

30 Jan­u­ary, 8.15am: At least four activists are still in the tree­tops of the third [2] anti-road camp along the route of the pro­posed Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) this morn­ing, as local grand­moth­ers mobilise to bring inflat­able dinghies to the flood­ed val­ley ths Sat­ur­day (2 Feb­ru­ary) for an aquat­ic demon­stra­tion of their sup­port for the peace­ful protests.

Cam­paign­ers are cur­rent­ly peace­ful­ly resist­ing the evic­tion of the Camp, which is locat­ed just west of Upper Wilt­ing Farm in Crowhurst (TN38 8EG) [3]. East Sus­sex Coun­cil have denied food and water to the pro­test­ers – who have faced heavy rain and gusts of up to 54mph, fifty-feet up in the trees – since Mon­day morn­ing [4].

Local grand­moth­ers will be assem­bling with inflat­able dinghies at 12.45pm this Sat­ur­day (2 Feb­ru­ary) at the Plough Inn in Crowhurst (TN33 9AW), from where they plan to mount an aquat­ic demon­stra­tion against the Road in the near­by flood­ed fields – fields through which the Road is sup­posed to pass [5]. An ear­li­er action (“Grannies’ Tree”) was repro­duced in both the Dai­ly Mail and Dai­ly Tele­graph.

The £100m Road project is 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 [6,7].

Sev­en peo­ple have been arrest­ed since Mon­day, includ­ing Natal­ie Hyn­de, daugh­ter of pop singer Chrissie Hyn­de [4]. The peace­ful protests against the Road– which have now been run­ning con­tin­u­ous­ly for 48 days, with 26 arrests – have seized nation­al atten­tion over the past sev­en weeks [8].

Adri­an Hop­kins of the Combe Haven Defend­ers said: “Resis­tance has been grow­ing to this awful scheme as each day pass­es and more peo­ple become inspired by the action so far tak­en to pro­tect the beau­ti­ful Combe Haven val­ley. This is only the begin­ning of a sus­tained cam­paign of peace­ful resis­tance to this envi­ron­men­tal­ly dis­as­trous white-ele­phant project.”

NOTES
[1] http://www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] The first camp was estab­lished on 21 Decem­ber. Two oth­er camps along the route, ‘Three Oaks’ and ‘Adams Farm’, have already been evict­ed, on 14 Jan and 16–17 Jan respec­tive­ly, result­ing in sev­en arrests.
[3] For maps and direc­tions see http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/camp-groundrules-directions/
[4] http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/29-jan-escc-still-denying-food-blankets-to-activists-facing-44mph-gusts/
[5] http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/sat-19-jan-grannies-photoshoot‑2/
[6] See ‘Con­tro­ver­sial ‘zom­bie roads’ scheme to be resus­ci­tat­ed’, Guardian, 10 Octo­ber 2012, http://tinyurl.com/zombieroads
[7] http://bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report
[8] http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/

Treesit in California Against CalTrans Bypass

A coali­tion of envi­ron­men­tal groups staged a protest Mon­day morn­ing along High­way 101 to protest the con­struc­tion of the high­way bypass around Willits.

Dozens of pro­tes­tors from Earth First! joined with a new­ly formed Willits group called Save our Lit­tle Lake Val­ley in an effort to stop the planned tree cut­ting along the bypass foot­print. In addi­tion to pick­et signs, a local woman is now liv­ing on a plat­form nes­tled in top of one of the trees slat­ed for removal. Pick­eters on the ground vowed to sup­port her tree sit­ting protest for as long as it takes.

“Cal­Trans did not cut today, it was def­i­nite­ly a vic­to­ry,” says orga­niz­er Sarah Grusky of Save our Lit­tle Lake Val­ley. “We plan to hold vig­ils as often as pos­si­ble to keep a look­out.”

Cal­Trans has been work­ing for the past few weeks, plac­ing mark­ers along the project right of way prepar­ing for the con­trac­tor to begin work. The first sig­nif­i­cant work sched­uled for the con­trac­tor is to cut the trees along the bypass route to pre­vent migra­to­ry birds from nest­ing in them. Tree cut­ting is expect­ed to start with­in two to three weeks accord­ing to Cal­Trans spokesman Phil Fris­bie.

Cal­Trans award­ed the $108 mil­lion con­struc­tion project to the part­ner­ship of DeSil­va Gates Con­struc­tion and Flat­iron West Incor­po­rat­ed late last year with the expec­ta­tion most of the heavy con­struc­tion work would not start until 2013 after the sea­son­al rains sub­sided.

A law­suit filed by The Cen­ter for Bio­log­i­cal Diver­si­ty, Sier­ra Club, Willits Envi­ron­men­tal Cen­ter and the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter in May 2012 is seek­ing to delay the project until a more thor­ough exam­i­na­tion of alter­na­tives is con­duct­ed. The Cal­i­for­nia Farm Bureau joined the law­suit in August 2012. In Novem­ber a fed­er­al judge denied the groups’ request for an injunc­tion aimed at stop­ping con­struc­tion until the law­suit issues were set­tled. The tri­al date is sched­uled for June 7.

While the courts set­tle the over­all legal­i­ty of Cal­Trans bypass design, some area activists are con­cerned about the dam­age being done in the mean­time. Pro­tes­tors brought infor­ma­tion­al signs and held them up to wave at trav­el­ers along the east side of High­way 101 south of Walk­er Road aimed at stop­ping any con­struc­tion through peace­ful protest.

“Cal­trans has not con­sid­ered the many oth­er viable and sen­si­ble solu­tions to Will­lits’ traf­fic prob­lems devel­oped by the peo­ple,” said War­bler, a Lit­tle Lake Val­ley farmer occu­py­ing the tree. “This Bypass will not improve local traf­fic and will cre­ate no per­ma­nent jobs, but it will per­ma­nent­ly scar the Lit­tle Lake Val­ley. The Army Corp of Engi­neers is man­dat­ed to choose the least harm­ful alter­na­tive and the Bypass as planned isn’t it.”

War­bler is 24-years-old and has been liv­ing and work­ing in the Willits val­ley for the past four years. This is her first tree sit. She vol­un­teered for this role when plan­ning for the protests began last year. She received tree climb­ing instruc­tions from Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers who also helped her get set­tled into the tree locat­ed at the south end of the new planned bypass not far from the cur­rent High­way 101. She has tarps to pro­tect her­self from rain and two sleep­ing bags to keep warm.

When asked how long she planned to stay in the tree she said, “that depends on Cal­Trans and local author­i­ties.”

Updates from the trees: Hastings Link Road protests

 

 

An activist high in the tress at Decoy Pond camp. 28-01-2013. Photo: Adrian Arbib. www.arbib.org

 

 

An activist high in the tress at Decoy Pond camp. 28-01-2013. Photo: Adrian Arbib. www.arbib.org

Day 47 (Jan 29): Decoy Pond Camp evic­tion con­tin­ues

[Update, 10am, Tues 29 Jan: A con­cert­ed move is report­ed­ly being made on all of the tree­hous­es, with lots of climb­ing spe­cial­ists in the trees.]

The evic­tion of the third camp (Decoy Pond Camp – see here for maps and direc­tions) along the route of the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) con­tin­ues today (Tues 29 Jan – the 47th day of con­tin­u­ous protests in the val­ley) with activists still locked-on up trees, after spend­ing a night in cold & wet con­di­tions, fac­ing gusts of up to 44mph (which are no joke when you’re 50 foot up a tree!).

Of the two peo­ple arrest­ed yes­ter­day: one has been cau­tioned and released, and the oth­er is appear­ing in court this morn­ing.

—————————————

Update, 6.30pm Mon 28 Jan: Climb­ing team & bailiffs have now left Decoy Pond camp for the day, leav­ing secu­ri­ty guards & fenc­ing behind. Two arrests have been report­ed. No-one yet removed from the trees. Hot food and more tar­pau­lins need­ed this evening (Mon 28 Jan). Evic­tion to con­tin­ue tomor­row (Tues 29 Jan).

Can you come tonight to climb into site and help defend the trees tomor­row? Trans­port from Brighton, Lewes, Bex­hill & Hast­ings. Details 07766 335506
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The evic­tion of the third camp (Decoy Pond Camp – see here for maps and direc­tions) along the route of the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) began around 8.40am this morn­ing. As at t 12.30pm there were some 70+ secu­ri­ty per­sonnnel on the site, as well as a con­sid­er­able num­ber of activists lock-on up the trees – includ­ing at least one at the top of a fifty-foot tree. The first arrest was report­ed around 12.20pm.

As we not­ed at the time of the evic­tion of “Base Camp”: This is only the end of the begin­ning for the protests against the Bex­hill Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR)!
If you can’t make it down to the Val­ley this week then please sign the Pledge / like us on Face­book / fol­low us on Twit­ter (@combe_haven) / send a dona­tion (use the Pay­Pal but­tons on this site or send a cheque) and stay post­ed for news on Phase 2!

—————————————

Press Infor­ma­tion Note
Combe Haven Defend­ers [1]
28 Jan­u­ary 2013

EVICTION OF 3RD HASTINGS ANTI-ROAD CAMP BEGINS
Cam­paign­ers peace­ful­ly resist­ing £100m project in tun­nels and trees

28 Jan­u­ary, 9.45am: The evic­tion of the third [2] anti-road camp along the route of the pro­posed Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) has begun this morn­ing, Mon­day 28 Jan­u­ary. Cam­paign­ers are  cur­rent­ly peace­ful­ly resist­ing the evic­tion of the Camp, which is locat­ed just west of Upper Wilt­ing Farm in Crowhurst (TN38 8EG), locked-on up trees and down tun­nels [3].

The peace­ful protests against the Road– which have been run­ning since 14 Decem­ber, with 19 arrests – have seized nation­al atten­tion over the past month [4].

Yes­ter­day, direc­tors and senior cam­paign­ers from six major envi­ron­men­tal and trans­port NGOs, includ­ing the RSPB, Green­peace and the Cam­paign to Pro­tect Rur­al Eng­land, vis­it­ed the Camp, con­demn­ing the £100m Road project [5], 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 [6, 7].

Andy Atkins, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Friends of the Earth, said “’This road shouldn’’t have been approved. It will lead to more pol­lu­tion, dam­age the envi­ron­ment and do lit­tle to boost the local econ­o­my. Reviv­ing dis­cred­it­ed road schemes like this won’t solve our eco­nom­ic and trans­port prob­lems, it will sim­ply shift traf­fic else­where. Trans­port pol­i­cy must change direc­tion. We need clean­er cars and safe, effi­cient and afford­able alter­na­tives.’” [5]

Adri­an Hop­kins of the Combe Haven Defend­ers said: “Resis­tance has been grow­ing to this awful scheme as each day pass­es and more peo­ple become inspired by the action so far tak­en to pro­tect the beau­ti­ful Combe Haven val­ley. This is only the begin­ning of a sus­tained cam­paign of peace­ful resis­tance to this envi­ron­men­tal­ly dis­as­trous white-ele­phant project.”

NOTES
[1] www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] The first camp was estab­lished on 21 Decem­ber. Two oth­er camps along the route, ‘Three Oaks’ and ‘Adams Farm’, have already been evict­ed, on 14 Jan and 16–17 Jan respec­tive­ly, result­ing in sev­en arrests that will all go to court lat­er this week.
[3] For maps and direc­tions see http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/camp-groundrules-directions/
[4] See http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/
[5] See http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/green-and-conservation-groups-ceos-visit-camp-condemn-link-road-plans/
[6] See ‘Con­tro­ver­sial ‘zom­bie roads’ scheme to be resus­ci­tat­ed’, Guardian, 10 Octo­ber 2012, http://tinyurl.com/zombieroads
[7] http://bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report

URGENT APPEAL – Defend Combe Haven, Resist the Eviction!

Camp Decoy, the last of three camps stand­ing in the way of the pro­posed Bex­hill – Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR), faces evic­tion next Mon­day (28 Jan). If you have ever thought you might come and take a stand against this hor­ri­fy­ing scheme, now’s the time.

Camp Decoy, the last of three camps stand­ing in the way of the pro­posed Bex­hill – Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR), faces evic­tion next Mon­day (28 Jan). If you have ever thought you might come and take a stand against this hor­ri­fy­ing scheme, now’s the time.

We need to do absolute­ly every­thing we can to peace­ful­ly resist this evic­tion. We have been tru­ly hum­bled over the last few weeks by the lev­el of sup­port from the local com­mu­ni­ty, and from well-wish­ers far and wide.  But now we need peo­ple, lots of peo­ple, to stand togeth­er and say: “Enough is enough, it’s time to pro­tect the coun­try­side”.

See here for maps and direc­tions from the near­est train sta­tion (Crowhurst).

Combe Haven is the first of 190 sites at risk of new road devel­op­ment.  If we allow this one, the oth­ers will fol­low and pre­cious habi­tats all over the coun­try will be lost for­ev­er.

Here’s how you can help resist the evic­tion of Camp Decoy:

1. Share this far and wide.  Face­book, Twit­ter, Email.  Phone your friends.  Phone your local radio sta­tion!  Tell every­one at work, at school, at col­lege, and down the pub.

2.Donate! Use the donate but­ton on the Combe Haven Defend­ers web-site, or send them a cheque. Every lit­tle helps: just £6 buys enough rope to secure a plat­form; £12 buys a lock to secure some­one to it.

3.Most impor­tant­ly – Come to Combe Haven and help to peace­ful­ly defend Camp Decoy!

CATCH THE COMBE HAVEN BUS!

Decoy Wood is the last remain­ing piece of wood­land in the way of the BHLR.  Wait a week or two and it may be gone. If live in Eng­land, Wales or Scot­land and you can get 20 peo­ple from your com­mu­ni­ty to come, we will pro­vide you with your very own Combe Haven Bus, for free!

These bus­es will bring peo­ple to Camp Decoy on Sat­ur­day, and on Sun­day we hope to pro­vide train­ing in tree-climb­ing, lock­ing-on, and a legal brief­ing.

We need every­one, whether it’s for peace­ful resis­tance, legal obser­va­tion or gen­er­al sup­port.  Whether you are will­ing to risk arrest or not – there’s a job for you!

The bus will return to your com­mu­ni­ty after a few days of action, depend­ing on the sit­u­a­tion on the ground.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Combe Haven Bus, please phone or text 07766 335506

18 Jan: Unevicted! Third Road Protest Camp Still in Place

PLEASE NOTE: We’re cur­rent­ly expe­ri­enc­ing prob­lems with our (out­go­ing) text mes­sag­ing.

PLEASE NOTE: We’re cur­rent­ly expe­ri­enc­ing prob­lems with our (out­go­ing) text mes­sag­ing. Until fur­ther notice, please direct all texts and calls to 07926 423 033, and check your email (assum­ing you’ve signed-up to our email list), this web-site and the Face­book page to keep up to speed on what’s hap­pen­ing.

VIDEO: https://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2013/01//505637.3gp

The third of three protest camps (“Decoy Pond”) against the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) remains unevict­ed today (Fri­day 18 Jan). Sup­port­ers and vis­i­tors are wel­come! See maps above and below for loca­tion and direc­tions.

Two cam­paign­ers occu­py­ing trees at the now-evict­ed “Base Camp” were arrest­ed yes­ter­day (Thurs­day 18 Jan­u­ary), bring­ing the total num­ber of arrests since the peace­ful protests began on 14 Decem­ber to nine­teen.

Please note: “Decoy Pond” camp is a bit trick­i­er to get to than the (now evict­ed) main camp was. In par­tic­u­lar, at present you need to be fair­ly steady on your feet to nav­i­gate the rough and icy ter­rain.

Press release Combe Haven Defend­ers [1]
Fri­day 18 Jan­u­ary
Con­tact 07926 423 033

UNEVICTED! THIRD ROAD PROTEST CAMP STILL IN PLACE, AS LOCAL GRANDMOTHERS MOBILISE TO SUPPORT PROTESTS
Cam­paign­ers still in trees as total num­ber of arrests reach­es nine­teen

Fri­day 18 Jan­u­ary, Crowhurst: The third of three protest camps (“Decoy Pond”) against the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) remains unevict­ed today (18 Jan), as local grand­moth­ers mobilise to show their oppo­si­tion to the Road and sup­port for the peace­ful protests.

Fol­low­ing their suc­cess­ful “Grannie Tree” action – pho­tos from which appeared in the Dai­ly Tele­graph among oth­er places [2] – local grand­moth­ers are organ­is­ing a sec­ond “Grannies Pho­to­shoot” against the Road this Sat­ur­day (19 Jan), meet­ing at 12.45pm by the Recre­ation Ground near The Plough pub in Crowhurst (TN33 9AW) [2].

Two cam­paign­ers occu­py­ing trees at the now-evict­ed “Base Camp” were arrest­ed yes­ter­day, bring­ing the total num­ber of arrests since the peace­ful protests began on 14 Decem­ber to nine­teen.

Like the two camps that have already been evict­ed this week, “Decoy Pond” is locat­ed on the pro­posed route of the BHLR (see foot­note [3] for maps and loca­tion).

The peace­ful protests against the road– which have now been run­ning for over a month – have seized nation­al atten­tion over the past week [4]. 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 [5, 6].

Gabriel Car­lyle, a spokesper­son for the Combe Haven Defend­ers: “Despite the freez­ing tem­per­a­tures – and the mas­sive resources deployed against them by East Sus­sex Coun­ty Coun­cil – cam­paign­ers are still occu­py­ing the trees along the route of the BHLR. The last month of protests are only the begin­ning of a sus­tained cam­paign of peace­ful resis­tance to this envi­ron­men­tal­ly dis­as­trous £100m white-ele­phant project.”

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NOTES
[1] www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] https://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/sat-19-jan-grannies-photoshoot‑2/
[3] Near­by post­code TN33 9AY. See maps above.
[4] http://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/
[5] See ‘Con­tro­ver­sial ‘zom­bie roads’ scheme to be resus­ci­tat­ed’, Guardian, 10 Octo­ber 2012, http://tinyurl.com/zombieroads
[6] http://bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report

17 Jan: Protest camp eviction enters second day!

[Update, 5pm, Thurs­day 17 Jan­u­ary: “Base camp” final­ly evict­ed this morn­ing. “Decoy Pond” camp still unevict­ed and acces­si­ble.]

[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
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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].

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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