M11 link road protest


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Anti-link-road posters were a common sight around East London.

The M11 link road protest was an anti-road campaign in London, United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the campaign was a significant factor in increasing the cost of constructing the road,[1] and together with others in the UK at that time, is considered by many to have played a major role in the large-scale cutbacks in the road building programme that followed in subsequent years.

Contents

Background

Proposals first arose in the 1960s for a new link road in north-east London, linking what is now the M11 motorway with the A102(M) Eastway (see A102 road and East Cross Route). At that time, traffic travelling between central and southern areas of London and East Anglia had to contend with a long stretch of single-carriageway roads through the suburbs of Leyton, Leytonstone and Wanstead. However, the road scheme was sidelined, and increasing traffic levels throughout the next two decades led to serious congestion in these areas.

The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher introduced a policy of intensive road building. Under these plans, the M11 link road scheme was resurrected. In the 1980s, contractors were appointed to carry out the work and a compulsory purchase of property along the proposed route was undertaken.

Around the same time, environmentalist groups were voicing dissent towards the upturn in road building. This began to manifest itself in direct action campaigns against road construction schemes that were actually in progress, notably at Twyford Down in Hampshire. The campaigns attracted several thousand people to their cause, many of whom were from counterculture backgrounds.

The protest campaign in East London

“ Direct action is a theatre, The media like that. A mixture of symbols & decision making - wars & celebrities. ”

—Allison, anti-link-road campaigner.[2]

By 1990, the majority of the houses along the route of the proposed road had been compulsorily purchased, although the demolition process had not yet begun. This led to many of the houses being let out temporarily to housing associations, while others lay empty. Several original residents, who had in some cases lived in their homes all their lives, refused to sell or move out of their properties. Large numbers of the empty houses were squatted.

Locally-based protest against the link road scheme was taking place, but the availability of free housing along the route attracted large numbers of campaigners from around the UK and beyond. The arrival of these experienced anti-road protest veterans gave impetus to the campaign and introduced skills which would be put into practice in the construction of "defences".

Sophisticated techniques were used to delay the construction of the road. Sit-ins and site invasions were combined with sabotage to temporarily stop construction work. This led to large numbers of police and constant security patrols being employed to protect the construction sites, at great expense — the delays and security escalated the total cost of construction by tens of millions of pounds.

The protesters were successful in publicising the campaign, with most UK newspapers and TV news programmes covering the protests on a regular basis. Desktop publishing, then in its infancy, was used to produce publicity materials for the campaign and send out faxes to the media.[3] A number of "stunts" were carried out, the most notable being rooftop protests on the Palace of Westminster[citation needed] and at the home of John MacGregor, the Minister for Transport at that time,[4]

To counter the campaign, the government began evicting residents along the route and demolishing the empty houses. In response, the protesters set up the so-called "autonomous republics" of "Wanstonia", "Leytonstonia" and "Euphoria" in some groups of the houses, going so far as to issue passports. Extreme methods were used to force the engineers to halt demolition, including underground tunnels with protesters secured within by concrete.

The chestnut tree on George Green

The chestnut tree on George Green, Wanstead became a focal point and a symbol for anti-M11 Link Road protestors.[5]

One section of the M11 extension was due to tunnel under George Green in Wanstead. Residents had believed that this would save their green, and the 250-year-old sweet chestnut tree that grew upon it;[6] however, because this was a cut and cover tunnel, this would result in the demise of both.[5][6] Still, until late 1993, local opposition to the M11 extension was relatively limited; while this opposition had been going for nearly 10 years, institutional avenues of protest had been exhausted, and local residents were largely resigned to the road being built.[7]; when outside protestors arrived in September 1993, few residents saw their mission as "their campaign".[8]

This all changed with the help of Jean, a lollipop lady in Wanstead, who upon learning of the tree's impending destruction, rallied the support of local children (and was later fired from her job for doing so while wearing her uniform[9]), who in turn recruited their parents into the protests.[10] It was then that the non-resident radicals realised that they had significant local support.[11] When local residents gathered for a tree dressing ceremony on November the 6th, they found their way barred by security fencing. Together, everyone pulled down the fencing to save the tree; at this point, as one wrote, "any division between activist and resident dissolved".[12]

Protestors continued to delay the destruction of the tree; solicitors for the campaign had even argued (successfully) in court that receipt of a letter addressed to the tree itself gave it the status of a legal dwelling, causing a further delay.[13][14] This was, of course, not to last. In the early morning of December 7th 1993, several hundred police arrived to evict the tree;[15] partly due to a successful "wrenching", it took several more hours for a cherry picker platform to arrive at the scene.[16] The chestnut tree was eventually evicted; an operation that took ten hours to carry out.[17] Protestors made numerous complaints against the police;[18] police, in turn, denied these allegations, attributing any misbehaviour to the protestors.[19] The tree was cut down and smashed up, the Tolkien-esque nature of its destruction not being lost on one commentator.[20] The protesters' efforts, however, were not completely wasted; media attention mushroomed after the event, with several daily newspapers putting pictures of the tree on their front pages.[21]

Claremont Road

Anti-M11 protestors came together to form a vibrant community in the condemned Claremont Road, Leytonstone.

By 1994, the resources of the government began to win out over the protesters, and only one small street, Claremont Road, was yet to be evicted. The street was almost completely occupied by protestors; there was but one original resident living on the street who had defied the Department of Transport's order to move — 92-year old Dolly Watson, who was born in number 32 on Claremont Road and had lived there nearly all her life.[22][23][24] By all accounts she had quite endeared herself to the anti-road protestors (who named a watchtower, built 100 feet high from scaffold poles, after her[25]); she, in turn, had some kind words for the protestors:

They’re not dirty hippy squatters; they’re the grandchildren I never had.[24]

A vibrant and surprisingly harmonious community sprung up on the Road; one which, by one account, won even the begrudging respect of the authorities.[26] The houses were painted with extravagant designs, both internally and externally, and sculptures erected in the road;[27][28][29] the road became an artistic spectacle that one said "had to be seen to be believed".[30] Rave parties were held and bands performed on stages set up in the street. Freak Quency Generator sound system was one of the regulars.

In November 1994 the eviction of Claremont Road took place, bringing an end to the M11 link road resistance as a major physical protest. Several hundred police and bailiffs carried out the eviction over several days; the street was razed to the ground immediately afterwards. In the end, the cost to the taxpayer was over a million pounds in police costs alone.[31]

Towards the end

Following the Claremont Road eviction things died down for a little while. Many of the non-resident protesters moved on to places such as Newbury, where other roads protests were taking place, while locals debated what to do. A house on Fillebrook Road, near Leytonstone tube station, was the only house left standing once that street had been knocked down. It was a listed building, and permission had not yet been granted for its demolition, and due to a security blunder it had been left empty. The house was thus occupied and renamed Munstonia (after The Munsters, thanks to its spooky appearance), and the protest was back on.

A tower was built out of the roof, similar to one which had existed at Claremont Road, and the usual system of defences and blockades were built, and a core of around thirty protesters ensured that there were always people staying there (a legal requirement for a squatted home, as well as a defence against eviction). Munstonia was finally evicted in June 1995; the eviction itself became the longest ever eviction of any single building in Europe, taking over eight hours to remove all the protesters from the roof and the tower.[citation needed] As usual many were locked into concrete blocks or chained to the tower itself. As at Claremont Road, the building was immediately demolished. Once again the press declared this "The End Of The Road",[cite this quote] and for the most part it was. A camp, christened Greenmania,[32] was established on the fringes of Wanstead Flats, by the Green Man roundabout in Leytonstone.[33] This lasted a few months, being eventually evicted in September 1995.[34]

Construction of the road, already under way by this stage, was then free to continue largely unhindered, although systematic sabotage of building sites by local people continued. It was completed in 1999 and given the designation A12; its continuation, the former A102(M), was also given this number as far as the Blackwall Tunnel. The official opening of the road took place without fanfare, in marked contrast to the celebrity extravaganzas previously commonplace at the opening of new roads.

Consequences of the protest campaign

The M11 link road protest was ultimately unsuccessful in its major aim: to stop the building of the M11 link road. However, direct action techniques first employed or refined at the protest have been transferred to numerous other protests around the world. Many veterans of the anti-M11 link road campaign went on to protest the construction of other road schemes such as the A34 Newbury bypass at Newbury in Berkshire; campaigns such as these helped to shift public opinion in the UK away from the unfettered building of new roads. In the years after the campaign, the Conservative administration shelved the plans for a number of proposed road schemes, and it is only since the turn of the 21st century that the current Labour Government is beginning once more to plan an increase in major road network upgrades.

Many ex-M11 protesters went on to join other pro-environment, anti-globalisation and direct action campaigns, such as Reclaim the Streets.[35][36] In the words of one former Claremont Road protestor, other ex residents of the Claremont Road protest site went on to join the ranks of Londons' homeless as they had nowhere else to go after the eviction of the street. Like so many other veterans of other anti-road protest camps such as Newbury.

Several of the protestors who were imprisoned for refusing to be bound over to keep the Queen’s Peace, challenged the UK Government’s Breach of the Peace legislation at the European Court of Justice.[37]

In 2002 in response to a major new road building program and expansion of aviation[38] a delegation of road protest veterans visited the Department for Transport to warn of renewed direct action in response, delivering a D Lock as a symbol of the past protests.[39] and Rebecca went on to founded Road Block to support road protesters and challenge the government. In 2007 Road Block became a project within the Campaign for Better Transport[40]

No sign, relic or trace of Claremont Road remains. We always knew that one day all this would be rubble, and this awareness of impermanence gave us immense strength—the impossibility of failure—the strength to move this Temporary Autonomous Zone on to somewhere else. Our festival of resistance could never be evicted. We would continue to transgress the distinction between art and everyday life. We would continue to make every political act a moment of poetry. If we could no longer reclaim Claremont Road, we would reclaim the streets of London.[41]

As such, the after-effects of the M11 link road protests are still being felt today.

For Leytonstone the consequences were mixed. Supporters say the road helped end the years of planning blight that had affected Leytonstone, although critics would suggest that the economic upswing and housing boom would have had the same effect. The road is still unpopular with many local people, and divides the communities of Leyton and Leytonstone in half. Many residents have complained that, as a consequence of the road opening, their streets had become rat-runs for commuters trying to get ahead of queues,[42] or who haven't received the compensation they were promised (or believe they deserve). On the other hand, according to a local council report, since the opening of the road there has been a significant reduction in traffic and air pollution in key roads in the Leytonstone area.[43] And at least one aim of the road was achieved: it is now much quicker for non-residents to get through East London by car.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Anti-road protests 'boosted cost'", BBC News (2006-04-15). Retrieved on 2007-05-27. "Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the campaign against the M11 extension contributed to a 100% increase in costs." 
  2. ^ "M11 Link Road". Protest Culture History.
  3. ^ "kriptick" (2004). "Tenth anniversary of Operation Roadblock against the M11 link road". UK Indymedia. Retrieved on 2007-06-15.. Tells of the "skipped 286 computers running Windows 3.1", and the "creaky" computers pounding out press releases and leaflets.
  4. ^ "kriptick" 2004.
  5. ^ a b McKay, George (1996). Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance. Verso, p. 149. ISBN 1-859-849-083. "A chestnut tree (later capitalized and given a definite article) suddenly became the focus for protestors and increasing numbers of locals[...]The protection of the Chestnut Tree came quickly to symbolize what was under threat from the road[.]" 
  6. ^ a b Wall, Derek (1999). Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements. Routledge, p. 76. "Local people believed that the M11 would tunnel under George Green, and the tree, said to have been 250 years old, would be saved." 
  7. ^ Doherty, Brian (2002). Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-174-015 pages = p. 200. 
  8. ^ Doherty 2002, p. 201.
  9. ^ Mckay 1996, p. 150.
  10. ^ Wall 1999, p. 75.
  11. ^ Wall 1999, p. 76.
  12. ^ Wall 1999, p. 76.
  13. ^ Wall, p. 76.
  14. ^ McKay, p. 149.
  15. ^ "Activists lose battle over chestnut tree", BBC News: ON THIS DAY. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.  This gives the figure as two hundred; Wall 1999 p. 76 gives the figure as four hundred.
  16. ^ Wall 1999, p. 76. According to the quoted writer, the delay between the arrival of police and that of the cherry picker was in finding another platform after one had fallen apart and another had been sabotaged. As it is pointed out, "Cherry pickers are rather sparse in East London, especially for companies who have a reputation for 'not looking after hired machinery'."
  17. ^ According to the BBC News article; Wall 1999, p. 76 gives a figure of nine hours.
  18. ^ Rowell, Andrew (1996). Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environment Movement. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-128-277. "The police were accused of widespread brutality in evicting the protesters. Forty-nine complaints against police were recorded by protesters[.]"  Note that Drury & Reicher 2000 gives a figure of fifty-seven.
  19. ^ BBC News: ON THIS DAY quotes then-Chief Superintendent Stuart Giblin as saying "My officers acted professionally despite some of the comments and behaviour of the protesters."
  20. ^ Curry, Patrick (2004). Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity. Mariner Books, p. 55. ISBN 0-618-478-85X. 
  21. ^ Wall 1999, p. 76.
  22. ^ Shepard, Benjamin; Hayduk, Ronald; Rofes, Eric (2002). From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. Verso, p. 218. ISBN 1-859-843-565. "In place of the usual petitions and marches to save the street, protestors simply moved in—occupying every house on the block (save one house owned and occupied by a feisty 92-year-old woman, who refused the Department of Transport's order to move.)" 
  23. ^ Duncombe, Stephen (2002). Cultural Resistance Reader. Verso, p. 349. ISBN 1-859-843-794. 
  24. ^ a b Geffen, Roger. "Claremont Road – At This Juncture". Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  25. ^ Duncombe 2002, p. 351.
  26. ^ Bordern, Iain; Kerr, Joe; Rendell, Jane (2001). The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space. MIT Press, p. 231. ISBN 0-262-523-353. 
  27. ^ Mckay 1996, p. 151.
  28. ^ Bordern, Kerr & Rendell 2001, p. 229.
  29. ^ Measure, Maureen. "Claremont Road and the M11 Link Road". Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society. Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
  30. ^ "M11 Latest News" (PDF), SchNEWS (1994-12-07), p. 1. Retrieved on 2007-05-27. 
  31. ^ Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, December 9, 1994, column 379. Quoting David Maclean, "I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the cost of policing the protest in order to allow bailiffs to take possession of the premises in Claremont road was £1,014,060."
  32. ^ Or, alternatively, Green Mania.
  33. ^ "Green Mania, Leytonstone". Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  34. ^ "8th September 1995", SchNEWS (2005-09-08). Retrieved on 2007-05-26. 
  35. ^ Duncombe 2002, p. 352.
  36. ^ Shephard, Hayduk & Rofes 2002, p. 218. "This coalition, armed with the action model pioneered on Claremont Road, fueled the rebirth of Reclaim the Streets."
  37. ^ "CASE OF STEEL AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM". Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (1998-09-23). Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
  38. ^ "Do we have to set England alight again?". The New Statesman (2003-06-30). Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
  39. ^ "Direct action road protest veterans delegation to Dept for Transport". indymedia. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  40. ^ "Rebecca Lush Blum - Profile". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-01-22.
  41. ^ Duncombe 2002, p. 352.
  42. ^ Summary of Rat Running around Well Street Common (Word document), Homerton Neighbourhood meeting minutes, 2004-12-08. Accessed 2007-05-27.
  43. ^ Agenda and Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission of Waltham Forest, Appendix B (discussing traffic flows) and Appendix E (discussing air pollution). Appendix A notes that this reduction has taken place since the council applied traffic control within Leytonstone, and that such measures have diverted traffic on to the link road; it is not clear whether such measures could have succeeded in reducing traffic on the road by themselves if the link road was not built.

Literature

  • Aufheben, The Politics of Anti-Road Struggle and the Struggles of Anti-Road Politics: The Case of the No M11 Link Road Campaign. In DIY Culture, ed. George McKay. 100-28. London: Verso, 1998.
  • Andy Letcher, The Scouring of the Shire: Fairies, Trolls and Pixies in Eco-Protest Culture (2001) [1]

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