THE May edition of Worthing's radical newsletter, the Porkbolter, has hit the streets of the West Sussex seaside town. The front page article reflects on the planning victory in the battle to save Titnore Woods - a battle The Porkbolter is keen to stress is not over yet.
PEOPLE POWER! WORTHING'S NEW BREED OF LOCAL HEROES
A RECENT report from two university psychologists showed that being a political activist makes you happier (The Guardian, March 2).
And that was certainly the case for everybody involved in the battle to save Titnore Woods when the impossible happened and on March 15 Worthing Borough Council rejected the developers’ planning application for 875 homes at West Durrington.
The fact that the war is clearly not over yet should not detract from our celebration of a truly magnificent victory.
Porkbolter
The determination of everyone involved, from the protest camp diehards to the many supporters across the borough, literally forced the council to listen to them.
The councillors, particularly planning chairman and serial expenses claimer John Livermore, were clearly frightened to death by the anger of the hundreds of people packing the Assembly Hall, by their total refusal to ‘play the game’ by the rules, by this eruption of raw, seething people power...
For us this is a sign of things to come. The people of this town, this country, this world, have put up for too long with being treated like rubbish by the powers-that-be.
We are ripped off by bankers and businessmen, lied to by politicians, used as cannon fodder in wars to make the rich even richer, forced to watch while they destroy our living planet in their endless selfish greed.
And if we dare to complain about it, we are regarded as nothing more than criminals and risk being beaten up by police thugs with the licence to kill.
But their empire is beginning to crumble. Their financial scams are coming unstuck, their oil supplies are peaking, their fibs aren’t fooling anyone any more.
And now new heroes are stepping forward - just normal run-of-the-mill people like all of us, but people who can tell right from wrong and are prepared to stand up and give it to them straight.
These heroes are not going to swallow the spin and the hype - they think for themselves and trust only what they have seen with their own eyess. They give the authorities the respect they deserve - none at all!
And, in the months and years ahead, there are going to be more of them surging forward than ever before!
The issue also exposes local rag The Worthing Herald for its hostile attitude to gypsies and travellers and reveals exclusively that Worthing will soon boast a state of the art lunar-powered water feature, on unused wasteland south of Marine Parade, for which the local taxpayers are being charged a mere £4 billion by a firm of consultants.
For full issue go to www.eco-action.org/porkbolter