PRESS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release 22 February 2004
'SWAMPIES' PLAN TITNORE SIEGE
Could
the Titnore Lane issue become a bitter and costly battle, the like not seen
since those
of Newbury or Twyford Down? That was the grim prediction following a meeting
between direct action ‘Swampies’ and local members of South Coast Against
Roadbuilding (SCAR). The campaigners visited ancient Titnore Lane Worthing West
Sussex to draw up plans to defend it from ruin by developers who’s plan is to
widen and straighten it, in the vane hope that it will cope with the extra
traffic that a proposed new Greenfield housing estate in West Durrington will
create.
SCAR’s
Ian Brooks said: “Clearly
there’s going to be trouble. Judging by the reaction from local
residents, no one in the area wants either the destruction of the lane or the
loss of woodland and meadows this development will cause. Even the prospect of a
massive new Tesco hypermarket, petrol station and car park has got people
reeling, especially as plans indicate it will be clad with mirror glass”.
Finally
Ian Brooks said: “ I think
Worthing council need consider seriously the implications of
this development. They will remember how on Sunday May 26 2002, police were
unable to prevent over 200 local protestors marching up Titnore lane, closing it
to traffic all afternoon. No one wants to see a repeat of that, but if previous
experience is anything to go by, developments like this one attract protestors
from a wide area and are difficult and costly to police. It occurs to me that
Durrington has more than enough issues for the over stretched police to deal
with, without a couple of hundred potential Swampies”.
--ENDS-
Notes
for editors.
South
Coast Against Roadbuilding (SCAR) was formed in 1994, as an umbrella group to local
groups fighting the threat of more road building. Many of our groups support
non-violent direct action and were at Twyford Down, Newbury and the A30.
