Oxford Ecology Newswire Archive

Linacre College, Oxford University, is hosting two scholarships on "water sustainability" funded by Coca Cola, which has been condemned as "a champion of the unsustainable use of water globally." Please write letters of protest. Read more >>

Oxford City Council will meet on 20th March to decide the fate of a historic copper beech tree which has stood in Oxford University's science area for well over one hundred years. The meeting comes after a long battle to save the tree from being felled to make way for a new biochemistry building. Read more >>

STILL RUNNING! Read more >>

Camp for Climate Action 2006 needs YOU! Read more >>

Just come back from site... Read more >>

latest news from tree protest in shepton mallet Read more >>

possible eviction shepton mallet tree sit! security fencing going up 12 noon Read more >>

next meetings announced & leaflet text - get more leaflets from networking AT climatecamp.org.uk Read more >>

This morning, activists visited the offices of Impregilo New Cross Ltd, part of the company which is building the controversial Karahnjukar Dam in Iceland. Read more >>

Please join our demo against a company involved in massive ecological destruction in Iceland. Read more >>

Canada is a leader in the abolition and antiwar movements.
Please stop a tiny number of fishermen and international furriers who
are keeping Canadian seal clubbing going long after
it has ended in the UK, US and elsewhere. Read more >>

Permaculture, Permaculture, Permaculture, do it now, learn, build.
Find local public spaces and plant seeds, any seeds, just do it.

Read more >>

There is going to be two meetings next Tuesday, 31st Jan regarding upcoming potential campaigns & actions. Both will take place in the Oxford Action Resource Centre (OARC), Room 1, East Oxford Community Centre. Read more >>

Yesterday West Berkshire Council failed to object to AWE Aldermaston's planned new laser - a facility designed to allow AWE to recreate the conditions in a nuclear explosion. This will allow the UK to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons. In response Block the Builders have called a blockade of the WMD factory at Aldermaston on this Monday (30 Jan 2006). Read more >>

Here's another set of old (murky) photos from the first Newbury bypass reunion, held on 11th January 1997, which saw a mass site invasion.

Between one and two thousand people turned up for the 'reunion rampage' which was billed as a commemoration and fence decorating rally. It was a very cold and misty day as people gathered at Newbury train station before marching towards the construction route at Middle Oak.

I remember so many people being shocked at the destruction - for many this was their first visit since the work had started and the months of evictions.

My memory is a little hazy, but at the compound near the Middle Oak people were lining up along the fence. Then suddenly to our right there was a hole - the fence had been cut. About twenty people stormed through followed by a few more, running into the mists, into the murk. I remember looking back expecting to see hundreds, but there was no one. There was a lot of shouting however. Some police had steamed in to try and block the hole. Security were now advancing from out of the mists in front of us, and then there were mounted police coming at the gallop bearing down onto the crowd by the hole in the fence - this was just well over the top, dangerous and provocative.

Those inside the compound were shouting to the others - "come on!". Then another part of the fence started to go - people were literally pulling it apart. More scuffles as police tried to push people back - but soon the tide of people was unstoppable and they streamed into the construction site.

At first security and police tried to push people away from the machinery, there were scuffles and arrests, but in the end all of the machinery were occupied with people sitting and standing ontop of them.

The site was fully occupied for what seemed like ages. A huge tall crane was scaled by several people as the entire site was taken over. The tree at middle oak became an impromptu social centre. People were drumming and sharing food, talking over old times, remembering the beautiful countryside that had been destoryed.

Some went further than others. As time wore on the machinery was getting a pounding. Hydraulic cables were cut and instrument panels smashed. Later as darkness approached the portacabin offices which had been occupied were set alight, as was some of the plant machinery. I remember many a heated discussion taking place, many people disagreed with burning the machinery, but understood the anger that drove people to do it. The Newbury bypass battle had seen endless property damage, with machinery put out of action, sand in fuel tanks, things smashed and so on, but some thought the burning was in a different class. Many were pleased to see it happen, others worried it would look bad in the press. It was a real mix of emotions, many of them raw.

Either way with darkness now replacing the eerie fog light, and bright orange flames licking the night, people soon began to stream away from the site. Job done, in one way or another.

See end for more reports and links.
Read more >>

After the reunion reports published on Indymedia about it being 10 years since work started on the Newbury Bypass, and the recent reports revealing the larger than expected traffic growth, I thought I'd dig out a few pictures of today, seven years ago at Newbury and the "End of the Road Reunion Rally"...

Sunday 10th January 1999 was the first reunion event since the bypass had opened (it opened nov '98), and marking three years since destruction work had starting on the road. Previous re-unions had seen large scale direct action but this time most people expected a quiet day - but really the opportunity was too good to miss, a chance to say again that this was an outdated destructive and crass road scheme, that opposition was still there.

And so people took to the new road... (see links at end for reports)
Read more >>

On Saturday 7th January around 60 people gathered at Middle Oak to remember the resistance against the Newbury Bypass (A34), and reveal the huge traffic growth that's come since.

It's ten years on Monday since the destruction of around 10,000 trees began in ernest, or rather should have done - back then protestors scored an early victory by blockading the entrance to the security compound with scaffolding tripods, thus ensuring no vehicles could leave. The start of work heralded the most full-on phase of the '3rd Battle of Newbury', Britain's biggest ever road protest, which saw over thirty different tree camps set up to oppose the road and around one thousand arrests. Read more >>

There will be a reunion this weekend to commemorate ten years since the start of construction work on the Newbury bypass. Read more >>

The Earth First! Summer Gathering 2006 will take place from Wed 16th to Sun 20th August 2006. The location will be at a new site in Wales.
Read more >>

These photos include one of the support vehicle passing the Botley Interchange sign, and others of carriers, escort Transits and a fire engine facing oncoming vehicles on the A34, as they travel north past Botley.
See  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2005/11/328857.html for short article and a photo.

Photos: Irene Gill, Oxford CND


Read more >>