Mark S Brown, a freelance journalist, writer and friend of our campaign,
has given us the right to publish here the feature he wrote for a major
national paper and for which we are most grateful.

The battle to defend Titnore Woods
To the West of Worthing in West Sussex there's ancient Titnore Lane - a
one time Droveway between the coastal plain and the South Downs. Either
side of the Lane is one of the final few remaining ancient woodlands on
the Sussex coastal plain. Within there reside a group of committed,
hobbit-like woodland defenders, who on Saturday celebrate the first
anniversary of their tree top occupation after moving onto the site back
in May 2006.

It is a fight between two worlds. One the one hand, a 25-strong band of
woodland occupiers are digging their heels in to defend around 275 ancient
oaks, ashes and beech (many more than 150 years old), to save woodland
which is home to a number of protected species, including great crested
newts, bats, dormice, badgers, skylarks and corn buntings, as well as an
old country lane. On the other side is an earmarked 875-home housing
estate and associated new Tesco hypermarket. Their struggle has attracted
huge public support locally, with Worthing residents now being joined by
high-profile names such as Dame Anita Roddick and comedian Rob Newman,
while in 2002, Dr Caroline Lucas M.E.P for South East England
presented the Mayor of Worthing a petition on behalf of concerned local
residents and members of environmental groups.

Opposing their occupation is the might of a consortium of housing
developers and Tesco, keen to see approval for a huge combined housing
and retail development get rubber stamped by the local council. There is
also the landowner of the contested land within which they have set up
camp, Fitzroy Somerset, 83, who stands to earn £120 million from the
125 acre sale to developers once planning permission is granted. The total
value of the development in an area known as West Durrington is estimated
to be a staggering £3 billion.

The focus of the fight rests upon the status of Titnore Lane, which has
survived battles in the past, when 30 years ago, a local campaign
succeeded in preventing it from becoming a dual carriageway. The fight
over this little country lane earmarked to be the main road linking the
new estate with the main A27 is gathering momentum.....

POW! to the people
The battle to save Titnore Woods stepped up a gear last year after John
Prescott refused original calls for a Public Enquiry into the development.
Public sympathy for this spirited drive to save the woodland have been
borne out of the efforts of a local campaign called 'Protect Our
Woodland' (POW!), which has brought together local conservationists,
direct-action environmental campaigners and local residents. It has been a
campaign waged locally for around five years. "I guess those in power at
County Hall Chichester at the time of agreeing the structure plan for
Worthing (about 20 years ago) knew even then there would be a stink when
plans were eventually drawn up for the massive development that would
swallow up the meadows, hedgerows, part of the ancient wood and the
century's old Lane", says John Clark, spokesperson for the POW campaign.


"Those of us who keep an eye on the politicians didn't spot what they were
up to all those years ago, but sure enough, as soon as the plans were
announced 5 years ago, the gravity of the situation became immediately
apparent, and so, POW was born", adds John. The campaign held a series of
meetings, and managed to encourage many concerned locals to attend
planning meetings, as well as getting questionnaires completed. However,
misgivings that their concerns were falling on deaf ears started to be
realised at a Public Inquiry in 2004 into the Worthing Local Plan, when
the Inspector's recommendation to change the road layout of the
development was ignored.

Dormitory & Dining Hall
As plans for the development involving a consortium of the Heron
Corporation alongside Bryant Homes (part of Taylor Woodrow) and Persimmon
Homes became public knowledge, details relating to the 875 housing estate
started to leak out. News spread through Worthing of the developers' plan
for building the 875 new houses on an area of land which is flood-prone.
Campaigners point to wider impacts on local transport infrastructure. "All
these extra people are going to have to commute elsewhere for work, which
means more pressure on the existing road network", adds John from POW! Yet
despite all this, a renewed plea to Communities Secretary of State Ruth
Kelly to call in the development to be examined at a Public Inquiry was
recently rejected by Whitehall.

Attached to the new proposed development is a brand new Tesco
hypermarket, which will be the largest store in the region. Tesco have
been going through their own planning procedure separate to the housing
scheme and the planning application has not been without controversy.
While Tesco's planning permission to expand their existing store in West
Durrington had expired, plans for a brand new huge hypermarket were
released. Then, at a planning meeting in late spring 2005, where the
main item advertised on the agenda was approval of an extension to the
existing planning permission for expansion, to local campaigners
astonishment, a vote on approval of the hypermarket was rushed through at
the end of the meeting. It is thought that Tesco are very keen to see an
improved road network in the area, a requirement for their transport
fleets of articulated lorries.


The Battle over Titnore Lane
By now alarm bells were ringing and more conservation and amenity groups
became involved as one application after another to do with the
development was announced. The campaign brought together specialists in
various fields such as ecology and road design and they were soon able to
discover major weaknesses in the developers' and council planning
department's procedures. Severe doubts were expressed over the legitimacy
of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) while is was claimed the
status of the Lane had been incorrectly stated at a critical council
planning meeting in order to get planning approval (it is alleged Titnore
Lane had it's 60 mph limit order imposed on it ever since it was wrongly
classified by the Highways Agency with 'A' road status when planning
consent was being agreed for the A27 bypass). Meanwhile, English Nature
(now Natural England) were criticised for declining to revisit the EIA.


Local council u-turn on the road?
The continued controversy spurred another local organisation - the
Worthing Society - to threaten Worthing Borough Council with a judicial
review into the whole application unless they looked at the road scheme
again. This was well-timed, as the latest Government guidance on speed
limits was released in the summer of 2006, following the publication of
new draft guidelines on highway improvements issued by the Department for
Transport. As a result, following consultation, West Sussex County Council
(WSCC) informed the developers that Titnore Lane should not now have to be
straightened - nor a roundabout to access the proposed West Durrington
Urban Development.  Despite this, Titnore Lane's 60 mph remains, as POW!
call for a 30 mph limit to be restored to narrow Titnore Lane by the
County Council.

For the tree-defenders, what might appear a significant climbdown will not
have been formally ratified until the developer's planning application is
finally presented. However, the main fear of campaigners is that if the
planning application approves the development, traffic accidents will mean
the Highways Agency recommending widening the road further down the line,
meaning the application of the chainsaw to serve a safer passage for
speeding traffic. "The battle might be won in the short-term, but the war
would be lost in the long-run", says John from POW!

POW! contend that recent events have controversially brought the whole
planning process into question. "The new advice on the status of Titnore
Lane negates the original outline permission for the housing development",
continues John. "The whole process should be scrapped and started from
scratch, including reconsidering the actual size of the development".


Diggin-in for the Long Haul
It is with all of this in mind that protesters are digging in for the long
haul, having vowed that they will stay in the tree camp to the bitter end
deploying "passive resistance". Having lost an appeal against trespass of
the land in the High Court in London back in August last year, protestors
had been fully expecting to be evicted by bailiffs with immediate effect -
playing a waiting game. The treetop defenders, however, remain on guard.
Following in a fine tradition of eco-resistance in the UK, a network of
tunnels had been already constructed by the end of last summer.

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