Rob update 2

Rob, who fell out of a tree over a week ago, is now out of hospital and has been back to the camp. He's currently in a lot of pain from his arm which has multiple fractures and says he's become immune to the pain killers he's been prescribed. Fortunately local support has been great. Rob is homeless (apart from the camp), is now staying with some friendly locals not too far from the camp. Although a bit of stranger to the comforts of running water, central heating etc. too much time outside in the cold only aggrevates the pain in his arm at the moment. Another local has generously provided Rob with some alternative 'herbal' pain killers which seem a lot better than those prescribed by the Doctors.

The camp also sends get well wishes to Cathy and hope to see her and her posse be back at the camp soon.



Illegal Council Meeting

The council are obviously feeling the pressure and are having a secret meeting at 10 am next Wednesday in the council offices. This meeting is behind closed doors. It won't be advertised and members of the public won't be able to speak or even go in. This makes the meeting illegal since all planning meetings are supposed to be open to public scrutiny. There is an outside chance they may decide to revoke the plans for the slip road here since the planning permission previously granted was not given legitimately. No evironmental imact assessment was carried out and at one meeting councillors where told by the chair that there was nothing they could about the new slip road. This was a lie so their decision was based on false information.



Get Carter

However the chance of revocation seems unlikely, not least because of a councillor called Carter. This guy is no stranger to dodgy land deals and seems to make a habit of buying seemingly worthless land which then becomes extremely valuable when planning permission is granted for some new development.

The land in question was given to the local school charity by the old colliery on the condition that they didn't resell it. Well they haven't resold it. Instead they gave it back to colliery which may seem like a rather odd thing to do. The colliery then sold it to Bellway homes. Last year the school charity (3 people), which normally has a turnover of around £100,000 suddenly made £2.4 million or 24 times it's usual annual income!!!

With all the dodgy underhand tactics and misdealings its no wonder the council now want to meet in secret.



Village Green

Locals have applied to have the site granted village green status. If successful this will mean any development will be stopped and the trees saved. Village green status is not that easy to get and requires all sorts of documentation and proof that the area in question has been in use for the past twenty years. However the locals have a solicitor on the case and say all the necessary criteria have been met and the all that is now needed is a hearing for the application.



Locals visit Grenoble

Next week two local people will be visiting Grenoble in France which was the scene of a brutal tree eviction last week. Grenoble residents there were protesting against the destruction of their local park. The trees in the park were planted in honor of local people when they died so there was obviously a lot of resentment when they found out their park was to made into a car park. Treehouses were set up and 2000 people turned out to resist the eviction. This was met by extreme violence from the french police. Water cannons and tear gas were used and around 100 people were hospitalised.

The Mansfield locals hope to see what they can learn from the french protests. Some tactics included woven treehouses that were suspended from the branches of trees like baubles from a Christmas tree. And who knows maybe some French tree folk will come to Mansfield Woodhouse too.

More on Grenoble (in french):
 http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=16743
 http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=15933



Spring Eviction Fever

The Sherwood camp now strongly suspects an eviction attempt will be made there after the eviction of Blackwood (which has now been served an eviction order). After Sherwood Nine Ladies will be the next target for the destructive bailiff's. Finally there is St Agnes Place, the oldest squatted street in London. This now apparently now has a scaffold tower under construction and is starting to sound like a twenty first century version of Clairmont Road.

If you're an activist and spend most of your time behind a computer screen, handing out leaflets or in meetings these evictions are an opportunity to experience some real action for a change. The protest camps of the nineties mobilised thousands of people and introduced many to direct action for the first time. They were also extremely successful. Several sites were saved as a direct result of the protests (eg. Lyminge, Guilford, Crystal Palace) and the government's road building program was dramatically cut back.

If you want to get involved don't wait for the evictions to start get down there now. The camp defences need building up and its much better if you can gain some experience of eviction tactics (eg. tree climbing, lock ons) before the event. And if you're not on the site when the eviction starts there's a chance that you won't get in at all if the bailiffs get their way. The government believes that the opposition to road building has faded and unless there is substanstial resistance on the ground more of Britain's countryside could be turned into tarmac in the very near future.

Visiting and living on camps is much more than simply resisting an eviction. The process of building defences or even your own dwelling from recycled materials is a highly creative one. You also get to meet loads of new people and experience living as part of a real community too. With no electricity, TV or bills it's a simple but very rewarding way to live.