Man arrested in protest over Rotherwas road, Herefordshire

24 May 2007 — a man has been arrest­ed after chain­ing him­self to a dig­ger in protest at the build­ing of a £12.5m road.

Mar­tin Wyness was held for aggra­vat­ed tres­pass over his demon­stra­tion at Rother­was Access Road in Here­ford­shire.

He was joined by around 20 pro­tes­tors opposed to project which will link the A49 road from Here­ford to Ross-on-Wye, to an indus­tri­al estate at Rother­was.

Here­ford­shire Coun­cil is build­ing it despite being refused fund­ing by the gov­ern­ment on three occa­sions.

Offi­cials said they believed the scheme was not good val­ue for mon­ey.

Fund­ing is being pro­vid­ed by a com­bi­na­tion of mon­ey from Advan­tage West Mid­lands and hous­ing devel­op­ers.

A coun­cil spokesman said it was need­ed to attract more busi­ness­es to the area, but pro­tes­tors say it is an excuse to build new homes around the near­by vil­lages of Bulling­hope, Low­er Bulling­ham and Dine­dor.

A pub­lic inquiry was held in 2006 which looked at the coun­cil acquir­ing the land need­ed for the road, and con­struc­tion work start­ed last month.

Back­ground info & oth­er cam­paign news at http://www.rotherwasribbon.com/