Roads Round Essex
At the end of February, the protest site at Hockley was evicted. The Campaign Against Silly Homes (CASH) had camped at the site since July 1999 to stop sixty luxury homes being built on 11 acres of wood, scrub and common land. Contractors built extra fences around the camp, (having already tried to starve camp residents out by cutting off food supplies) and began felling trees, despite a legal agreement that they wouldn't. One protester was arrested after he was cut down from a tree, another was arrested under the Trade Union Act for 'stopping a man from using his tools' (throwing herself in front of the chainsaws), but has now had the charge dropped. Ironically, an appeal pending came up in March and the judge decreed that the contractors didn't own the land when they tried to evict protestors last October, which meant that the contractors had to pay court and legal costs for that appeal.
Gorse Wood protest camp has been evicted after protestors spent a record 40 days and 40 nights in tunnels underground, delaying road building and costing Countryroute plc (a consortium of road-builders Laing) large amounts of money. The A130 6-lane link road being built there will destroy meadow, woodland and an environmentally sensitive area.
Recently another protest camp has been set up in Essex . This time it is against Wilcon Homes (Eastern Limited). They want to build an urban development, in a rural area, of 73 houses at Golden Cross Road in Ashingdon near Southend. The local residents have objected to the problems it will cause, flooding, traffic congestion, the likely effects on wildlife etc. The residents have registered the site under the Commons Registration Act 1965 there is now an inquiry into this and the local Council has the plans for the public to inspect. Despite this, the developers wanted to clear the site so protesters have occupied the site to save the trees. The developers have spent a lot of money boarding up a bungalow, but it has been occupied anyway as there was a spare key in the garage!
Contact the protest camp on 07833191951 or Golden Cross Road Action Group on 01702 541267.