Parklife

Press release:

Camp Bling ‘Save Priory Park!’ road campaign

Tuesday 13th January 2009

Contact Camp Bling directly on 07866 967601

Or e-mail camp.bling@yahoo.co.uk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

—————————————————————————————–

Camp Bling prepares for Priory Crescent go ahead.

‘Prepare yourselves for large scale direct action in defence of the Earth.’ That is the message from activists at Camp Bling, road campaigners, and local residents, as approval for recommending funding of the controversial Priory Crescent road widening in Southend-on-Sea is expected to be given at a meeting of the East of England Regional Transport Forum this Friday. (1)

Contrary to widespread belief and recent comments from Southend council leader Nigel Holdcroft, the project has not been scrapped, and the local Conservative group headed by him are pressing ahead in the face of virtually total opposition from across the board, including within the council chamber from the other political parties who have vowed to scrap it. (2)

It is understood that £7.5m of central government funding is scheduled to be made available in two blocks from as early as April 2009, with the only outstanding requirement then being for concurrence from the Department for Transport which would respond to the finalised regional guidance to be provided by late February, and a council vote to formally approve the business case request for funds.

Speaking from Camp Bling, Ginger said, ‘we feel we have done pretty much all we can to both stop the road and provide an alternative view on the state of the planet. No doubt about it, if the go ahead is given then there will be anarchy on Priory Crescent which will be completely beyond our control. People are likely to arrive from far and wide to stop the destruction.’

The recent ‘emergency relaunch’ in September 2008 to address environmental catastrophe as it unfolds and accelerates, and new website: www.campbling.org have been well received, drawing ongoing attention from around the world with the message that fundamental and radical lifestyle change is needed more than ever. (3)

Ginger added, ‘future generations will look back at the people like those behind the Priory road scheme, and wonder what stopped them from making the simple connection to the radical changes that we now urgently need to make. This could still be the end of the road and a new beginning if the right choice is made, but we are running out of time.’

——————————————————————————————
ENDS.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1) Details for the East of England Regional Transport Forum, regional funding proposals, and forthcoming meetings (16th Jan/10th Feb) can be found at:

http://www.eera.gov.uk/meeting-and-events/regional-forums/regional-transport-forum/

2) The latest proposals were first put forward in 1998, and are now solely supported by the Conservative group, though the scheme has a history originally dating back to the early 1970’s.

3) A significant number of people have signed up for direct action via the Camp Bling ‘beat the bulldozer pledge’:

www.campbling.org/bulldozerpledge.htm

(Reprinted courtesy of www.campbling.org)