Anti-Roads Protests,the Community and the Police

The British Green Party was the first in Europe.

The environmental group Greenpeace is probably the best known.

For example, Friends of the Earth and Earth First.

Quote from Boyle D. “Maybe the End of the Beginning for Motorway Building” (1995) Town and Country Planning, Vol. 64, No. 8, August, p. 196. Confrontations have taken place between protesters and road builders on the Scan Link between Germany and Denmark, and in the Aspe Valley in the Pyrenees.

Protesters used various methods to frustrate construction work, eg, lie down in front of motor vehicles and bulldozers, handcuff themselves to plant and machinery, squat in buildings due for demolition and occupied trees earmarked for felling.

Ministry of Transport published a review of the Trunk Road Programme in March 1994. The environmental protest group Friends of the Earth is opposed to the Road Programme on the grounds that it supports a transport policy which does little towards meeting environmental and emission targets: Roads to Ruin — Friends of the Earth's response to the Roads Review in England (1994).

Two local Militant Labour district councillors gave their support to the M77 protesters at an early stage.

Pollok Park is one of Glasgow's treasures and boasts the famous Burrell collection. The park had originally been gifted to the citizens of Glasgow by Sir John Stirling Maxwell in 1939.

During the Twy ford Down campaign in Hampshire the site security costs rose to £2m — see “Collison Course, Green Protests Grow over Motorway Routes” (1994) The Sunday Times (Scotland), September 25, p. 5.

Two different contractual requirements exist — in England (Newbury Bypass) the Government wants the contractors to include in the tender £1m to cover the costs caused by the protest action — in Scotland, however, the Government requires the bidders to estimate the costs of security and cover any possible extra costs, “Roads Held to Ransom” (1994) The Sunday Times (Scotland), July 31, p. 2.

Three quotes from “Passports Please, you are now entering the Pollok Free [E] State” (1994) Glasgow Evening Times, August 19, pp. 18–19.

See “Head Hits out Over Pupils' Protest” (1995) Glasgow Evening Times March 19, p. 3. Also see “Pollok's Green Children join the Class War” (1995) The Daily Mail, March 3, p. 3.

See “Don't Push our kids into the front line” (1995) Glasgow Evening Times, March 2, p. 8.

Herras Fencing is the name given to easily portable sections of metal fencing.

See MacHan T.R. who discusses the dilemma between the rights of the individual and the welfare or good of the community as a whole, “Individual Rights, the Common Good and the Environment” (1993) International Journal of Social Economics Vol. 20, No. 9, pp. 54–65.

Quote from Dobson A. “No Environmentalism without Democratization” (1995) Town and County Planning, Vol. 64, No. 12, December 10, pp. 322–323.

Quote from McLeod Colin , “It's the End of the Road for M77 Battle” (1996) Glasgow Evening Times, January 10, p. 13.

See article by Grant, W. who describes the continuing rise of “pressure groups” and their influence as a focus for political expression, “Pressure Groups — New Trends in Their Influence” (1989) Contemporary Record — The Journal of the Institute of Contemporary British History, Vol. 3, No. 2, November, pp. 2–5.

See Potter S. “Transport, Environment and Fiscal Policies: On the Road to Change?” (1993) Policy Studies, Summer, Vol. 14(2), p. 38.

British Road Federation — Basic Road Statistics Report (1995).

“The Failure of the Criminal Justice Act” (1995) The Economist, November 11, p. 30.

See article by Woods J. in which he describes public order incidents, that increasingly involve people who normally support the police and calls for a change in police tactics to prevent the service losing public faith, “Friend or Foe” (1995) Police Review, January 27, pp. 19–20.

See the minutes of the Police and Fire Committee Meeting, Strathclyde Regional Council, April 27, 1995.