Twyford: Down and Out?

Following an injunction on FOE activists the bulldozers finally went in, decimating woodland and carving off top soil. With only 3 days notice over 70 EF! activists got together from all over the country to halt the illegal destruction.

21st March

This was a quiet day to begin with. After a planning meeting at the old army camp overlooking Twyford Down and the Itchen valley, us Earth First!ers went many different ways, some to Winchester, others to Hockley Traffic lights to set up placards and banners and some to stop the work.

People climbed on top of dozers and trucks until all work had ceased. Greg and Flynnie occupied a truck on the highway and had a hard time at the hands of the Police before being arrested. Flynnie plans to fight the case.

The main focus of the day came after Twyford Down Association had spelled out the word 'STOP’ upon the topsoil stripped hillside. People poured down the hill, TDA and EF! people merged and blockaded the A33, creating long tailbacks! Banners were stretched across the road, people sat down, and the music played on!

The police were rather quicker this time in responding - about twenty minutes - but they still faced problems because as one lot of people were moved off the road, another lot came on behind!

This yo-yo effect went on for more than an hour and in the midst of it all, some activists attempted to cut away the artificial banks holding back the Itchen Navigation in order to flood the work site. A total of six people were arrested.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was how the police came up with an effective way to keep the traffic flowing from all directions by creating makeshift slip-roads using just twenty-eight cones. At a stroke they had demonstrated a freebie solution which ridicules the government’s £45 million proposals for Twyford Down.