Having come to power on the back of a pledge to oppose this massive development and given us a lot of flannel about "listening" to the public’s views, they have now made it quite clear that they intend steamrolling the scheme through - like we always thought they would. At a very revealing public meeting at the Pavilion Theatre on April 19, they even had the cheek to try and make out that those opposed to the scheme did not actually represent local opinion. But when quizzed by alert and persistent members of the public, they were forced to admit the stunning truth. Over a thousand objections to the West Durrington project had already been received - with the sum total of those backing the desecration of our countryside amounting to an impressive zero!
The council is trying to pretend it is no big deal that a gang of greedy property developers are going to be allowed to tarmac over the last green lung in Worthing borough and cut down "only" 200 trees to widen Titnore Lane for access to the 900-home estate. They also claim that they are powerless to act, when what they really mean is they lack the guts to take up a fight against powerful vested interests on behalf of the people they claim to represent. Council leader Sheila Player claimed she did not like the development, "not one jot", but admitted she would not vote against it when it comes before planners - probably in July. If the council rejected the development, "the Government would surely march on here and do what it likes to Worthing", she claimed. When a member of the public made a comment about people getting their own back through the ballot box, she rather smugly pointed out that the Tories’ policy on Titnore was exactly the same as her own Lib Dem party’s!
No meaningful choice in elections, local politicians with apparently no power at all, a central London government bent on imposing its Big Business-funded agenda on Sussex - what a pretty picture of our English "democracy" this paints!
Once again, by ducking out of the responsibilities they willingly took on by standing for office, our councillors are leaving the rest of us - ordinary Worthing residents - to defend our town. Of course they don’t like people who stand up for themselves - witness the scaremongering in the press and the heavy police intimidation of Titnore protesters over the last few years (see endless Porkbolter back issues), which even involved the venue of the April meeting moved from Durrington "on police advice" and security guards protecting Worthing Pier from people coming to the public meeting called by the council itself! Campaigners are determined to take on the fight in whatever way they can. One group ("STOP Durrington’s Over-Development. Save Titnore’s Trees") are putting up a candidate in the Northbrook ward in Durrington in the local elections and others are inviting people to a big protest in Worthing town centre on July 10 - meeting at 2pm in Montague Place, near Woolworth’s.
Worthing’s councillors have now made it perfectly clear they won’t so much as lift a finger to save our precious ancient woodland at West Durrington. It is time for the people of Worthing to step up and do it for them!
POLICE are investigating the illegal blocking of a badger sett on the site of the proposed Titnore Woods desecration, it has been revealed (The Argus, April 17). Coincidentally, the presence of badgers on a piece of countryside can be a key factor in whether developments are allowed to go ahead. The land is owned by the Somerset family, who stand to make millions by flogging off the land to property developers, but the report did not say whether they or their employees are being questioned about the identity of the mystery offenders. Tony Slow of the West and Mid Sussex Badger Protections Groups, which spotted the crime, said: "This is a critical time of the year for badgers and they are particularly vulnerable."
Meet 2pm, Saturday July 10
Montague Place
(near Woolworth’s)
Worthing
BRING BANNERS, WHISTLES,
FANCY DRESS
Council’s decision due in July!
Take, for instance, the astonishing police behaviour in Durrington. As the Worthing Herald explained (April 29), a father who arrived at his home in Varey Road to find it on fire "was pushed to the ground by police and subdued with CS spray as he tried to save his family"! It was only then that "an angry mob of youths turned on the police". You might have imagined the "thugs" theme to the Herald’s report applied to those who attacked Mr White and thus started the "riot". But of course, it didn’t. It referred to the fact that, in the face of the police’s increasing unpopularity (what a mystery! why should that be?), they have brought in what the Herald reckons is "the legal muscle they need to tackle the rising tide of yob crime" and we would call something like Nazi police state conditions. Using Herr Blunkett’s Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, they have defined an area of Durrington where they can break up groups of "two or more persons", force people to leave the area if they are not residents and order them not to return for 24 hours! They are also imposing a curfew on under 16 year olds after 9pm - so much for the long summer evenings hanging out with your mates we all enjoyed when we were younger. Chief Inspector Russ Whitfield admitted to the Herald that "there are human rights implications" - but obviously that’s not enough to stop the police jackboot stamping down on a whole community.
Meanwhile, the Neo-Labour Gestapo will not be stopped in its rush to impose ID cards on every one of us. It will not just have your name and mugshot, but "biometric" data including your fingerprint and iris pattern - the sort of treatment that in the past has been reserved for dangerous criminals. There will be a £2,500 fine for "failure to attend an appointment for a biometrics scan" (The Guardian, April 27) and "students will be required to carry ID cards before they can obtain loans for university" (Independent, April 27).
Campaign group Privacy International estimates the cost of the scheme to the taxpayer at an incredible £6 billion and has suggested a few other better uses for that sort of cash - like building 600 new schools at £10m each (education, education, education!), 30 new hospitals at £200m each or giving each of Britain’s poorest six million pensioners and families a £1,000 windfall gift. It is vital that people voice their opposition to this wasteful and totalitarian scheme. Info: Privacy International 2nd Floor, Lancaster House, 33 Islington High St, London N1 9LH, 07949 778247 or Defy-ID
* FAMILIES and young people protested in London on May 11 about the Government’s Big Brother database on children. Alison Preuss, vice-chair of Action on Rights for Children said: "Although the Government claims that the Children Bill is about child protection, we know perfectly well that it is part of the e-government plan to put the records of everyone in the UK on to a central database. We are disgusted that they are relying on ‘child protection’ to deflect criticism, and using Victoria Climbie as cover for sweeping in a policy that was being framed before the Laming Inquiry into her death even opened."
Nobody listens. Nobody cares. Nobody will act in your interests. Vote Nobody. (anti-election leaflet)
"A shock poll for The Sun today reveals a devastating collapse in support for Labour and the Tories as bored voters turn to No Party. By voting for no party, millions will be raising a two-fingered salute to politicians who set their taxes or take the nation to war... They are fed up - not because they are uninterested in politics, but because nobody at Westminster or in Brussels takes a blind bit of notice of their views." (The Sun, April 19).
"If voting changed anything they’d have banned it by now." Ancient anarchist proverb.
"Britain will be in danger of riots and civil disobedience if the number voting continues to fall dramatically, the election supremo said yesterday. Politicians across the spectrum have said that the next government will have to struggle to assert its authority if less than 50% of the electorate turns out to vote." (Guardian, March 29). We wouldn’t want that now, would we?
Michael Howard wants you to vote. He says (in the Tories’ Newsline leaflet): "This is the one opportunity people have to make their voice heard." One opportunity, eh? Sort of sums up our so-called democracy!
Naughty free-spirited voters across the Channel are "making France increasingly difficult to govern," warns The Guardian (March 30). Politicians don’t like "the way, as a matter of course, voters reject whoever is in power". How irresponsible!
The editor of The Argus reckons all good citizens should register to vote. He adds: "Once on the list, they should exercise their right to vote for mainstream candidates of their choice rather than any extremists." Vive the status quo!
"Don’t vote. It only encourages them." Another ancient anarchist proverb.
Printed and published by The Pork-Bolter, PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ. No copyright, no way they’ll get us to vote for any of them. Ever.
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