Stop The Linslade Bypass

Press Release, Tuesday 25th January 2005:

GAGGED!

FoE South Bedfordshire

An incredibly wide ranging and draconian Interim Injunction has been sought and granted to Buckinghamshire County Council who are terrified of the strong protests against the Stoke Hammond - Linslade Western Bypass. This is at the same time that Head of Planning and Transportation at the County Council, Garrett Emmerson, has been conducting secret meetings with the campaign, pretending that he would secure public transport measures for the area as a response to the protests, whilst simultaneously organising a blanket protest ban [1]. Campaigners feel double-crossed and say this demonstrates the County Council's lack of commitment to sustainable transport measures, and their attitude to free speech.

Bucks County Council applied for the catch-all secret Injunction banning 'Persons Unknown' from any form of protest at the site of the road, at a secret hearing on Friday 28th January, without protesters being able to challenge it [2]. There will be a Hearing on Tuesday 1st February,at the High Court in London [3], although it is unclear who can challenge it. Anyone wishing to contest the Injunction was given until 4pm on Monday 31st January to seek Legal Advice and file a Defence (7 working hours). The Injunction was apparently posted at the protest camp in the evening of the 28th, so that campaigners were not able to seek legal advice over the weekend.

Campaigners are furious at the double-dealing of Garrett Emmerson. South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth spoke to Mr Emmerson because they are so concerned that congestion is killing Leighton Buzzard, and there are no plans to ease this. Councillor Mark Freeman of the Leighton Linslade Town Council finally agreeded on January 29th that this road will not help the awful traffic problems in the centre of Leighton Buzzard. [4]

South Bedfordshire Friends of the earth want to know why Buckinghamshire County council have not introduced and have no formal plans for a new pedestrian crossing and a speed limit of 20mph which is the only way to ensure safety for children, for Stoke Hammond. A bypass will not make the village safer for children only traffic calming measures will do so. After the bypass there will still be 5000 vehicles a day and that is not counting the effect of the new housing.

Victoria Harvey of South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth said:

"They fear that that local people will show up the scheme as a complete waste of money that does not help anybody except for the 750 waste lorries which will be using the bypass every day. They fear people witnessing the illegal felling trees with potential bat roosts, so they want to ban any form of opposition. Local people have been bravely and peacefully protesting about this scheme, standing out in the cold weather with banners as is our ancient and democratic right, and even this would be banned under the Injunction. This is simply an attempt to intimidate people from protesting, and it won't work."

She added: "Whilst Garrett Emmerson was pretending to us that he would ensure good public transport measures as a result of the protest, he was behind our backs organising this appalling injunction that bans all forms of protest. He said to me that he had not realised that Leighton Linslade should be affected by the bypass, yet the reason for the government giving the money to Bucks is to help Linslade as well as Stoke Hammond. Garrett Emmerson has proved to us that Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire have no interest in Public transport or childrens' safety. There are not even plans for a pedestrian crossing in Stoke Hammond or a 20 mph speed limit which are the only things would make the road safe for children. He and Prescott are building roads that destroy the countryside so that developers can build executive homes and ignore the needs of local people. Although Prescott talks about providing affordable housing only 16% of the new housing will be affordable. This is the London Docklands Development corporation all over again, where developers made money and the needs of local people were ignored. Prescott's new housing plans depend on people wasting their lives sitting in traffic jams, with the noise of aeroplanes over their heads"

Notes to Editors
[1] Mr Emmerson, as well as being Head of Planning and Transportation at the County Council, is also a Commission for Intergrated Transport (CfIT) member. He wrote all the Witness Statements for the secret Injunction hearing.
[2] The Order was granted in secret on Friday 26th January and says it "prohibits you, any person unknown (being a person entering without the consent of the Claimant) on land in the area of Liscombe Park and Dollar Farm, in connection with opposition to or protest against the construction of the bypass". this effectively will stop any form of protest, whether holding a banner or placard as most local people have been doing.
[3] The Hearing wil be after 12pm, in Court 37 of the High Court, The Strand, London
[4] The Buckinghamshire County Council Press Release only mentions the Stoke road in Linslade which is the least congested road in Leighton Linslade. According to the figures from Buckinghamshire County Council Stoke Hammond will still have 5000 vehicle movements every day. This is still a lot of traffic. However the BCC figures take no account of the new housing growth (The Milton Keynes South Midlands Growth Area) so they are out of date and inaccurate.
[5] Aside from the arrests of Victoria Harvey and Rebecca Lush on 19th January, there has been no disruption to works. Since then local people have been simply maintaining a presence with banners. It is this public form of protest that they want to ban?
[6] In the next two years they are spending £43 million on a road that helps no one, yet only £16 million on 498 affordable houses in Bedfordshire when there are 8500 on the housing waiting lists.

A website has been set up by local residents at www.linsladeprotest.org.uk

Contact: South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth: Victoria Harvey on 01525 385 097 and 07815 817108 or vharvey@btopenworld.com