Victory in Arundel!

[tliouk]

Victory in Arundel!
porkbolter, 09.07.2003 20:08

A famous victory has today been won by the campaign to halt the 
second Arundel bypass in West Sussex.

At the last minute, and against all expectations, the Government 
dropped its support for the environmentally destructive scheme, as 
well as for the equally disastrous proposed Worthing bypass across 
the South Downs behind Cissbury Ring. 
Arundel and South Downs MP Howard Flight was certainly caught by 
surprise, having sent out a statement to local press earlier in the 
week welcoming 'the Government announcement to proceed with a bypass 
for Arundel'. 
The last week has seen a flurry of media interest in the Arundel 
protest camp at Tortington Common, with reports everywhere from BBC 
TV and Meridian to the Evening Argus, The Times and The Guardian. 
A hint as to the reasons why the Government backed down in West 
Sussex, while ploughing ahead with road plans elsewhere in the 
country, came in a report on the Evening Standard website this 
morning (Wednesday). 
Written before the announcement, and seemingly expecting the Arundel 
road to be given the green light, it added: "The Government will be 
desperate to avoid clashes with committed activists such as 'Swampy' -
 so-called 'king of the eco-warriors'. It is still nervous of 
provoking the kind of confrontations that created ugly scenes at 
Twyford Down and the Newbury bypass in the late nineties." 
We've said it before and we'll say it again: direct action works

 e-mail: worthing at eco-action 
 Homepage: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter