Green Lobbies Crushed By Corporate Grocers

south west | the environment | opinion/analysis Wednesday July 29, 2009 12:39 by Marius Goubert - Guide2Bristol rudy at guide2bristol dot com

Marius Goubert wonders if local action groups can challenge corporate interests to keep Bristol green.

Can local action groups realistically fight the vested interests of the government and developers in order to save our green spaces?

Nowhere in the UK has seen such unprecedented levels of housing development in recent years than the South of England. Casting an eye around the built up suburbs, it's difficult to find a square foot of green which has not fallen victim to some kind of planning application.

Indeed, with the corporations devouring more trees and open spaces than Saruman from Lord of the Rings, it might not be long before we all end up living in some sort of grimy Blade Runner - style megacity. However, in an act of defiance which really was like something from the pages of Tolkien, a coalition of protest groups banded together in a bid to resist the corporate giants and their plans to invade Bristol with 25,000 new homes and a giant dual carriageway.

On the 21st January, protestors from the ‘Alliance Against the South Bristol Ring Road' together with those from ‘Whitchurch Action Group' and ‘Dundry Action Group', began a defiant march on London. Campaigners, answering the call to arms like some crusading army, flocked to pledge their support from across the entire South West. It was shaping up to be an epic showdown with the minister. Almost like the shirefolk of Middle Earth fighting to preserve their green pastures, the protest army marched its way to London in defence of Bristol's threatened Greenbelt land. But in a cruel twist, campaigners found themselves snubbed like bleating peasants and flatly refused an audience with the minister.

The campaigners describe on their discussion forum how ‘at the last minute' the minister decided he would only meet the representative MPs, and even though they were granted a few small concessions, the Minister had ‘no wish to hear or listen to the views and concerns of the ordinary people these proposals will affect.' Even though Green Party Councillor Charlie Bolton points out ‘the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) is opposed by the Tories, who are likely to win the next election. Therefore, the targets go if the Tories win. The campaigners therefore need to delay until the election', the whole episode seemed to underline the sheer futility of combating housing developers, or any of these mega corporations, on their own terms. When trying to make their case to the government, the odds are stacked up against the campaigners to such a ridiculous extent; it is like the parish town council going head to head with a world superpower...

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