Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

SchNEWS: Tit Top

SchNEWS 714 | 18.03.2010 21:12 | Ecology | Globalisation | Social Struggles | South Coast | World

Well blimey. Against all the odds it looks like Titnore Woods has been saved from the developers' evil clutches.

The decision made by Worthing Council's planning committee to reject the development plans for the new housing estate on the ancient woodland site on Monday (15th) had everyone shouting with joy and dancing in the public gallery. The crowd were so beside themselves they even gave the bloody councillors a standing ovation.

Links: Save Titnore Woods | Protect Our Woodland | Titnore Blog

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7



The committee, who conducted the open proceedings in Worthing's Assembly Hall, voted unanimously to reject the plans to build 875 houses. Around 150 members of the public turned up for the crucial meeting with banners, placards and drums.

“It's been a long fight,” said one protester, “ but it just shows you it's always worth taking the bastards on.”

“We thought we didn't have a chance,” said a Worthing resident, “but I think the councillors finally realised how angry local people were and voted with their consciences at last.”

A significant police presence was deployed at the event and the public gallery was flanked on all sides by coppers and security staff keen to keep order. Members of the public were searched upon entry and had 'dangerous' items such as banners and placards confiscated. But no security force could stop the fury and irreverence that spewed forth from the public gallery.

From start to finish the committee was taunted, booed, heckled, laughed at and continuously interrupted. The impassioned speeches and questions that came from the floor rammed home the absurdity of the proposal even to the jobsworth committee. It was enough to raise a smile from even the most cynical anarchist.

Councillor John Livermore, who opened the proceedings, explained that there would be 15 minutes (you're too kind) of questions allowed from the public followed by a number of pre-registered speakers presenting their arguments for and against the proposal. This was met with a shout of “no one here's in bloody favour of it! ”. His reply, “may we remind you that these proceedings are part of a democratic process ”, provoked mass laughter from the room.

The first to speak from the floor was local resident, Joy Hurcombe, who advocated abandoning the meeting entirely. She said; “In Worthing the housing quota has already been exceeded. There is a large supply of brownfield sites – at least 900 - that could be used instead of exploiting and destroying ancient woodland. Why are we then proceeding with this meeting at all?”

Robin Rogers, the Lib Dem Councillor called Titnore Worthing's “jewel in the crown” in a town “woefully short on green spaces”. He urged the committee to “stop dancing to the developer's tune,” saying that, “if this development goes ahead we are going to lose this site for ever”.

Inevitable issues were brought up, such as the hideous idea of adding more traffic to the bloody nightmare that is the A27, and the utter stupidity of building on a flood plain in area already at flood risk.

The threat to protected species such as dormice, bats, nesting birds and great crested newts who inhabit the woods was raised again and again.

One speaker said, "Do you understand that in this area there are many protected species? Do you imagine they will still be there after six years of development? What's the point of having protected species if they are not protected?”

To this James Appleton, (Worthing council's head of 'planning, regeneration and well-being' – oh, the irony) responded: “There are a range of mitigation and compensation measures that have been put in place.” Go figure that one. How exactly they plan to 'compensate' for lost species evades us...

Another speaker said, “There is nobody in this room who wishes to speak up in favour of this. Is it not plain that local residents do not want this development? Why then, at every turn, do you not allow us to speak? Why, for instance, did you change the time of this meeting to 2pm when it was originally set for 7pm when more people could attend. Why are you so afraid of local opinion?”

Another speaker said: “I used to play at Titnore Woods when I was a child. When you build on green spaces like these you create a lot of angry children with nothing but concrete to bounce off.”

Appleton replied that one of the reasons to support the development was to “improve on the existing deficit of services in the area”.

He outlined the developer's disgusting bribe to provide a new school, library, medical centre and sports complex including (ooh ahh) floodlit sports pitches, changing rooms and a skateboard park. With plastic trees as decoration presumably.

Councillor 'Killjoy' Livermore warned that the developers would almost certainly submit an appeal or seek a judicial review into the decision. He said, "The decision is only one step down the road. It will be back, that's for sure."

Meanwhile the protest camp remains in full operation, buoyed no doubt, by this happy turn of events.

Also in SchNEWS 714: Bristols at Dawn | Netan Yahoo Sucks | Shrop Til They Drop Open cast coal mine protest camp in Shropshire | Thai Dyed Blood thirsty Thai protesters take on government | Sus-Sexin' It Up Sussex management back down over student exclusions | Acquit While You're A Head Hunt monitor acquitted of manslaughter | Bloody Bankers Smash Edo pickets Barclays to mark the 7th anniversary of the Iraq invasion | And Finally... No Sex please, I'm Scottish

SchNEWS 714

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Support

25.03.2010 11:35

It's a false economy..here's to the Freeconomy...

Trees are priceless..may the spirit of the Dongas tribe be with you....

United we stand ,divided the trees fall...

Congratulations!!!

Mr Fox


Support

25.03.2010 11:35

It's a false economy..here's to the Freeconomy...

Trees are priceless..may the spirit of the Dongas tribe be with you....

United we stand ,divided the trees fall...

Congratulations!!!

Mr Fox


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech