TLIO Easter action pictures

Fri Apr 16 11:56:37 BST 2004

Thanks to the Sherwood lot: Chris, Steve Iain and Richard for this 
http://mysite.freeserve.com/sherwood_camp/whnjs.htm

lots of pictures of the Easter fun and games here
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/04/289349.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3616589.stm

Headline news in the local press

Brithdir Mawr is small community just south of Newport in Pembrokeshire's N=
ational Park. The community is trying to find less destructive ways of livin=
g and seems to be doing a great job in the idyllic cottages and alternative =
buildings that make up the community. 

The house 

Five minutes walk from the community and hidden in the woods is an amazing =
experiment in low impact living. This is the house of Tony Wrench and his pa=
rtner Jane Faith who built their home in 1997. The house is remarkable for a=
 number of reasons. Firstly it is very well insulated with it's earth roof a=
nd uses local wood and solar energy for it's heating and lighting. Secondly =
the embodied energy to build it is extremely low because it is made mostly f=
rom locally sourced materials. There has been little transport energy used b=
ecause of this and the timber is untreated too. Finally the cost of this bea=
utiful low impact dwelling was incredibly low. Materials cost £2500 and it t=
ook some 400 man hours to build. That's about 10 weeks work for one person. =
Tony who designed it himself is neither an architect nor a designer. 

The problem 

A year or so after it was built the local planning authority - Pembrokeshir=
e Coast National Park - found out about it. Tony has applied for planning pe=
rmission but Pembrokeshire National Park planning committee continually refu=
se and in 2001 said it had to be demolished by July 2002. Since then various=
 legal battles have ensued which basically got no where and last weekend Ton=
y had planned to demolish his home. 

Obviously people from all over the country (even the world) were pissed off=
 about Park's planners decision and The Land is Ours decided to do something=
 about it. Five days of action were planned and they turned out to be partic=
ularly effective too. 

The occupations 

Action mainly consisted of a number of surprise tactical occupations at key=
 sites in the area. 

The first one to take place was at Castell Henllys which is popular tourist=
 spot because itself has a number of recreated ancient roundhouses. These go=
t planning permission because that the National Park planners gave themselve=
s permission to build them. No one lives in these dwellings, at least they d=
idn't until the first surprise visit from us lot. Just around closing time o=
n Thursday one of the houses was occupied and locked up. A section 6 notice =
was displayed on the door stating our squatters rights and our intention to =
stay and live there. A huge banner was erected that could be read from the m=
ain road that said Roundhouses Aren't History and a number of other dwelling=
s and tents were also put up in the grounds. 

This first occupation achieved a number of things. Firstly it provided us w=
ith a beautiful space to base ourselves for free for the weekend. Secondly i=
t drew attention to the National Park's hypocrisy and double standards in al=
lowing this type of dwelling. And finally it cost the National Park some mon=
ey. This was Easter weekend and normally would have been a lucrative time fo=
r the National Park's tourist attraction. 

On Good Friday people went off for the day to visit Tony's roundhouse. The =
aim was to try to persuade him not to take it down. He had already enlisted =
a whole bunch of people as his demolition squad. The demo did persuade him b=
ut to make sure the house was squatted by protestors. This meant Tony and hi=
s wife had to move out to one of the smaller roundhouses and they couldn't d=
emolish the building because they would first have to get the squatters evic=
ted. 

This gave some people the chance to stay in the roundhouse too. The Sheff p=
osse were lucky enough to stay over on Monday night and very interesting it =
was too. The benefit of the insulation could really be noticed by the way th=
at one comparatively small wood burner heated the whole space equally. It's =
about 30 feet across. 

On Sunday the third occupation took place. This was the occupation of some =
land by the side of the A487 (the main road to Castell Henllys) and the buil=
ding of another roundhouse on it. This temporary, straw bale dwelling provid=
ed an alternative tourist attraction and an info centre about low impact dwe=
llings was set up here. 

The demo 

On Tuesday the main site at Castell Henllys was decamped and everyone that =
was still around headed down to Haverfordwest for a demo to the Pembrokeshir=
e Parks offices. This was an incredibly fluffy demo and before the demo star=
ted the police explained that they wanted part of it to take part on the pav=
ement. I thought this was pretty crap but no one seemed to mind. The organis=
ers probably didn't care know they still had their trump card up their sleev=
es. 

The demo itself was OK. Very musical with bagpipes and drums and lots of ki=
ds and very hippiesque too. 

When we arrived at the offices the police were obviously on the case and, n=
ot wanting to see reenactment of June 18th in this little welsh town, had a =
police photographer carefully positioned in one of the first floor windows. =
Just below a thin blue line of police cordon tape clearly showed us where co=
uld and could not go. But the whole thing was so chilled out and fluffy: the=
re was food and music and kids and dogs playing in the small empty car park =
directly in front of the office buildings. 

What we wanted was to talk to Catherine Milner, one of the planners who was=
 refusing to give permission to the roundhouse and who wanted to see it demo=
lished. This didn't seem a particularly demanding request as she had known a=
bout this demo for 3 weeks. But instead she sent a guy from the IT departmen=
t. He said he couldn't answer any questions and was only there to take the p=
etition. 

This was incredibly lame on their part. The police officer in charge, Roger=
, said that Cathy didn't want to come out because she felt intimidated but s=
he would see two people as long as there was no recording equipment and neit=
her person was a journalist. Well no one too impressed with that. People had=
 come from all over the place. For us it was a 4 - 5 hour drive. 

After that we erected a second barrier in front of the police one so that n=
o one could get too close to Cathy and intimidate her were she to come down.=
 We also said there would be no shouting, that questions would take place th=
rough a facilitator and we would all remain seated throughout the dialogue. =
Well she didn't take up that offer and after that the police refused to rela=
y any more of our requests back to her. 

No one seemed sure what to do at that time until someone started drumming a=
nd some music started. Other people erected a yurt in a corner of the car pa=
rk. 

After the music was some discussion facilitated by Simon Fairlie of the Low=
 Impact community Tinker's Bubble and Chapter 7. It was pretty clear what ev=
eryone wanted and that we weren't going to get it either. It was then that w=
e played our ace card. Or maybe the Joker would be a better metaphor. We all=
 agreed that we would now occupy the car park as a squat and were going to s=
tay in the Yurt that we'd put up. A section 6 was added to the yurt and a ha=
t was passed round to collect money. The aim was to get to get £220 so we co=
uld put in our own planning application for the Yurt in their car park! 

At this point I can only imagine that Cathy Milner must have been seething.=
 She wanted to avoid media attention but with this decision suddenly mainstr=
eam media became very interested indeed. I suppose they didn't have much new=
s over the bank holiday and suddenly we were a national story. On some news =
programs this was the top story and one cameraman and interviewer came insid=
e the yurt to do a live report! 

Although the four of us from Sheffield had planned to go back it was such a=
n amusing and surreal situation we decided to stay the night too. Around 20 =
people stayed the night and two tents were put up too because the yurt could=
n't fit everyone in. We (from Sheff) left the next day (yesterday) but there=
 were still around 10 people committed to staying longer as needed. Accordin=
g to a BBC news report [1] everyone has now left with some kind of agreement=
 that the Park's planners will speak at a public meeting. 

All in all it was a top weekend. The direct action was well thought out and=
 executed as well as being effective and empowering. It was also pretty amus=
ing too. The roundhouses were very interesting to visit and the main one whi=
ch was due to be pulled down is still up. Whilst this is unlikely to be the =
end of the battle to save the roundhouse, it did feel like a powerful step i=
n the right direction. 

More info: 

 http://www.thatroundhouse.info
 http://www.brithdirmawr.com
 http://www.tlio.org.uk
 http://www.thelandisours.org/chapter7/index.html

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/3612541.stm
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3616589.stm
[1]  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3617737.stm

 http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/page.cfm?objectid=141400=
39&method=full&siteid=50082
 http://www.thisispembrokeshire.net/pembrokeshire/news/NEWS0.html

 http://www.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk/english/planning/index.htm

Send messages of support for the Tony's roundhouse to: 

Cathy Milner 
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, 
Winch Lane, 
Haverfordwest, 
Pembrokeshire. 
Wales, UK 
SA61 1PY 

phone: 0845 6347275 
fax: (01437) 769045 

 cathym at pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk

lots of pictures here
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/04/289349.html