Good to see some positive coverage of Camp Bling in last night's 'Echo'- nice one!

What should influence Anna Waite and this so called 'democratic' Council is the fact that a public consultation revealed that 20,000 people are against this road widening scheme and only 16 people (sixteen) are for it! How is that representing the will of the people? Furthermore I have to drive along the stretch in question 2 or 3 times a week and quite often get caught up in that 'rush hour' traffic queue between Aldis and Cuckoo corner (thats me in the white Southend Borough Council minibus that hoots and waves on a Tuesday and a Thursday!), even when its really bad (or LOOKS really bad...) and stretches all the way back to Jones Memroial roundabout it doesn't take more than 5 minutes to get past the traffic jam. And everyone I know that has to drive along that stretch says the same thing, even some of the car-lovers I work with.

But we all know the real agenda is the 'development' and urbanisation of the whole of the east of the town- when I walked to school at Cecil Jones High School in the 70s the whole of the North of Eastern Avenue was fields and countryside, look how it is slowly but surely being chipped away now with Waitrose supermarket, Wellsley Hospital, Boots and Laces Club, etc slowly creeping across the landscape, and who knows what other planning applications are just waiting to go once the road gets the go-ahead? No doubt the allotment site along Eastern Ave will very shortly find itself under threat as well...

Its a shame the camapign against the road got bogged down by personality clashes in the early days, we could have stopped this thing much sooner if the energy that went into in-fighting and alienating the audiences at public meetings by squabbling in public had gone into campaigning and finding affordable sympathetic solicitors to fight the case (sorry but thats my opinion).

Anyway, we forced a u-turn from the council on both their plans to destroy the allotments and to merge the two 'failing schools' in the area, so I'm sure we can beat them on this too!

Keep on blingin!!!

sorry i cant be there to support you guys, but much love and solidarity from the norwich no n25 campaign. keep up the fight, i know of a camp on the south coast that stopped a road being built with only 7 people on site full time. it can be done!!!