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Prepare for the Battle of Weymouth

Road Alert | 15.01.2004 16:37 | London

On 18th December 2003 The Department for Transport gave approval to the county council to build the Weymouth relief road costing £54.6 million.

On 18th December 2003 The Department for Transport gave approval to the county council to build the Weymouth relief road costing £54.6 million. The county council will now draw up its business plan for government approval and commence planning applications. The orange route chosen will go straight through Two Mile coppice which is one of the area's only remaining rare ancient woodlands.

Breeding grounds for bats and voles will be destroyed. The council have devised an environmental mitigation package to compensate for wildlife habitat lost as a result of the new road hoping that protesting groups would drop their objections, however the Woodland Trust has pledged to fight on, calling for a country park to be established around the coppice as well as scrapping the new road scheme.

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Comments

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Time to rebuild the castle?

15.01.2004 18:05

That wood is right next to the field occupied by the pink castle a couple of years ago, and less than half a mile from Teddy Bear woods, the site of a previous protest camp. It certainly looks like this campaign would be a really good candidate to mobilise lots of people and knock up the pink castle once more.

(see www.say-hi.to/thecastle)

let the good times roll...

jester
- Homepage: http://www.sayhi.to/thecastle

Init

15.01.2004 21:15

lets knock up another pink castle and ignore the fact that two mile coppice is going to be trashed by the huge weymouth bypass!

oiyoi

Defensive structures

16.01.2004 14:34

The pink castle was designed with two purposes in mind. Firstly to provide a defensive position from which to resist evict (in a field with no handy trees to climb or build in) while defending the field from being planted with GM maize. It secondary purpose was to provide an imaginative visual focus for the campaign which it was hoped would help attract and influence media coverage.

Rebuilding the pink castle for the protection of two mile copice would instantly provide the local media and the local community with a frame of reference regarding protests and resistance.

While the pink castle is unlikely to offer significant defensive scope in the woodland, since there are already many opportunities in such a landscape, the threat of a long drawn out campaign of resistance is a powerful tool.

This area has a history and culture of resistance of which the pink castle is a significant part. The pink castle is available and just talking about putting it back up helps create an environment in which the posibilities of a costly eviction become apparent.

bard