Alan Weeks, who died on 26th March, contributed to many campaigns, public inquiries, and protests in Hampshire and beyond, notably the Twyford Down campaign and protest (from the 1970s to the 1990s), the Bar-End park-and-ride campaign and protest (1999-2003), and numerous campaigns against housing on greenfield sites. He lent support to many other campaigns, including the fight to stop the Newbury bypass.
A tireless opponent of reckless development, Alan was also a true "people's politician" who took a keen interest in virtually every local community issue, from fighting for better healthcare to helping homeless people he befriended on the streets.
Outside his home city of Winchester, Alan was probably best known for his role in the hugely controversial Twyford Down campaign, which made national and international news in the early 1990s. Interviewed by journalist Nick Davies for The Guardian in 1992, he explained how senseless road-building had radicalized him: "I cannot countenance the destruction of this landscape. I believe it would be immoral to sit back and let it happen and so I am now prepared to take direct action which may break the law. I do not know personally whether I should lay down in front of the bulldozer, or set it alight, and I do not want to injure people or damage property, but it is my view that there is no other option for local people but direct action." Looking back on the campaign in 2002, he told the Southern Daily Echo: "It really was an inspiration and it led to the government dropping the roads programme. It led to the creation of a network that won't lie down.
Alan was born in 1933 and died in Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, on Friday 26th March 2010.
A tireless opponent of reckless development, Alan was also a true "people's politician" who took a keen interest in virtually every local community issue, from fighting for better healthcare to helping homeless people he befriended on the streets.
Outside his home city of Winchester, Alan was probably best known for his role in the hugely controversial Twyford Down campaign, which made national and international news in the early 1990s. Interviewed by journalist Nick Davies for The Guardian in 1992, he explained how senseless road-building had radicalized him: "I cannot countenance the destruction of this landscape. I believe it would be immoral to sit back and let it happen and so I am now prepared to take direct action which may break the law. I do not know personally whether I should lay down in front of the bulldozer, or set it alight, and I do not want to injure people or damage property, but it is my view that there is no other option for local people but direct action." Looking back on the campaign in 2002, he told the Southern Daily Echo: "It really was an inspiration and it led to the government dropping the roads programme. It led to the creation of a network that won't lie down.
Alan was born in 1933 and died in Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, on Friday 26th March 2010.
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