Newbury Bypass 'Road to Ruin' - part 1

A film about the eviction of anti-road protestors from the site of the Newbury Bypass, UK in 1996

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• newbury
• bypass
• 1996
• anti-road
• protest

[stephja1]

@djfirkins Cheers :)

[djfirkins]

@stephja1 The Sunshine Underground by Chemical Brothers, from their 1999 album Surrender. The melodic chimey bits were sampled by the Chemical Brothers from a track by James Asher called Asian Workshop.

[smegarama]

Proud to say my dad was there with these protestors... i remember when i was 5 i stayed with my dad and all his friends in this forest.. he showed me his treehouse and we sat around the campfire at night.. i used to love exploring those woods :(.. got a few memories there as a hippy child

[stephja1]

Excellent video. So much destruction in the 90s for what amounted to be a few minutes less journey time by road - road building is a dead end.

(also, anyone know what the tune is from 1min onwards?)

[birdkeys]

I was there, as a 13 year old supporting and helping protesters together my parents. Watching this back makes me cry. It's awful how innocent people were making a stand for what they believed in and being arrested. I for one, am extremely proud to have been involved. I only wish that we won. Hopefully this will be an example for all who want to stand up and express their views.

[revol148]

@portsanity Is that right?Anyway I feel fully vindicated on the 6 times I climbed trees in that bitterly cold February & March in 1996.I hates cars with a passion,mourn the loss of that beautiful stretch of Berkshire forest now ruined with 6 lanes of tarmac running through it & still believe that sustainable low carbon transport is the best option.Nowadays I spread the world for the Optimum population Trust - but hey that's another story.

[portsanity]

@revol148 MI5 still have whole departments dedicated to ECO Warriors but recently they have been trying to re brand them as domestic extremists.The only reason i can guess for this re branding is so that they can use more force against peaceful people .

Peaceful Protesting should work but when it is denied either through intimidation and violence or through the courts that is when things become more extreme.

If

[TheSpandexbullet]

I was there to make a documentary for a media studies course. The campaigners were an amazing, creative and passionate bunch. The tunnels and tree houses were incredible. The police and bailifs acted like total tossers and walked around filming us all day.

[revol148]

Doesn't this all make you all nostalgic for the "good old days" when road protestors were the biggest threat to society and MI5 had a whole department dedicated to eco-activists - how things have changed in the intervening 14 years!

[Naomi845]

Hi, I'm doing some research on alternative ways of portraying past events, i.e by people rather than news crews etc - I would like to speak to anyone who was there, my number is 01752 727 472,

Thanks,

Naomi