CHD stalls in Bexhill and Hastings this Saturday (22 Sept)

September 19, 2012 by combehavendefenders

Please come and help out at the next CHD stalls, this coming Saturday (22 September):

10am – noon, Devonshire Road, Bexhill

2 – 4pm, Wellington Place, Hastings

Some coverage of our last stall, in the Hastings Observer:

And a press release about this Saturday’s stall:

Press release
19 September 2012

GIANT BADGER JOINS ANTI-ROAD PHOTO EXHIBITION
Local wildlife threatened by road that will boost overall traffic levels, say campaigners

A giant badger bearing a placard stating “We will not be moved!” will be joining the Combe Haven Defenders in Hastings Town centre this Saturday (22 September), when they return with their travelling exhibition of photos of Combe Haven Valley.

The exhibition will take place in Wellington Place from 2 – 4pm, and will feature photos of the Valley and its wildlife taken by local photographer Oliver Tookey. The Valley is threatened by the £100 million ‘link road’, work on which is due to start in the new year. If built, the road will pass within metres of the Combe Haven Site of Special Scientific Interest – designated as one of the nation’s most important wildlife sites – and severely damage the important biodiversity of this region.

The adverse impact of the road on the area’s badgers is noted in the East Sussex County Council’s own 2007 “Environmental Statement” on the road and local populations of bats and dormice populations will also be damaged by the scheme [2].

The exhibition is part of a series of events leading up to a “Camp and Rally in the Valley” on 29 and 30 September, to ‘celebrate the valley and develop peaceful resistance’ to the road. Guided walks will depart on Saturday 29 September from Bexhill Station and Bulverhythe (Sheep Wash bridge) at 11am, and from Crowhurst Station at 12 noon, joining the Camp in time for lunch and a rally.

Defenders spokesperson Abby Nicol said: “The Council’s own plans acknowledge that the “link” road will actually lead to an overall 14% increase in traffic in Hastings and Bexhill. Moreover, a genuinely sustainable regeneration strategy for Hastings that could generate the same – or more – jobs for a fraction of the cost of the road has long been available [3]. We encourage everyone to join us in the Valley on Saturday 29 September to see one of our area’s greatest treasures and show their opposition to this environmentally-devastating waste of public money.”

[1] See www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] The Statement notes that the road “would result in a statistically significant increase in nitric acid deposition within [the areas concerned]” with an “uncertain” effect on habitats and species. It also (grudgingly) acknowledges a “minor adverse impact” on both badgers and bats, and notes “the possibility that small populations [of dormice] to the south of the new road would become isolated.” See http://tinyurl.com/badgerslinkroad
[3] “New Jobs Without New Roads – sustainable regeneration for Hastings”, Friends of the Earth, 2001, see www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/success_stories/hastings.html