They called themselves Dongas, lived outdoors through a bitter
winter, threw themselves in front of bulldozers, got beaten up by
security guards and sent to prison, and eventually failed to stop the M3
being carved through chalk downland outside Winchester. But the 15-20
urban youths
who camped out to try to defend Twyford Down in 1992 are recognised to have fired up British environmental
protest and kickstarted a major shift in green attitudes in both government and the public.
On
Saturday, some of the Donga "tribe" – named after the Matabele word for
gully, which had been given by local people to hollows above Winchester
– return to the scarred hillside with hundreds of others to celebrate
the 20th anniversary of the protest with a night under a full moon. They
warn that the 40 or so
new road schemes planned by the government will increase traffic and add to environmental destruction and carbon emissions.
They
will barely recognise Twyford Down, but they accept that they too have
visually changed. Instead of grungy, unemployed kids with painted faces
living in squalor, most have settled down, got "proper jobs" and have
married. A few have died, others are musicians, and some are
professional environmental campaigners.
The downland was one of
Britain's most ancient, protected landscapes, but the Conservative
government of the time was prepared to sacrifice it to save motorists an
estimated three minutes on the road between London and Southampton,
says Becca Lush, now a mother and pillar of the corporate establishment
with a cosmetics company. In 1993 she was one of seven Twyford
protesters sent to prison for breaking an injunction. "We didn't know
what the fuck we were doing, only that we were doing something."
"We were totally naive. We thought we would just go there and save the hill," said Alexandra Plows,
now a researcher at Bangor University,
who recalls how the Dongas tried everything from casting magic spells
and running around naked in front of the security guards, to enacting
rituals and playing music to keep the road builders away.
"I was
very much on a spiritual warrior quest then. We would weave spells, use
chants, incantations and rituals. Protection spells for the Down were
made up on the spot during drumming and chanting sessions," she said.
"We had some excellent big rituals and parties."
Much of the £12bn
road programme planned by the Thatcher government in the 1980s was
later abandonned as a direct result of the many road protests that
followed Twyford, but the coalition is planning to build hundreds of
miles of new roads, says the
Campaign for Better Transport (CBT).
"They
are being planned despite evidence that new roads generate more traffic
and congestion and emissions. Government and local councils want to
spend billions of pounds on dozens of new roads over the next few years,
and new 'growth' funds and devolved spending powers for local councils
threaten to add more projects to this list," said a CBT spokesman.
Of
the new schemes approved in the budget by the Department of Transport,
the £100m Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) planned to start in the new
year, is expected to have the most traffic, and therefore highest
carbon emissions. "Runaway climate change is one of the greatest threats
we face. Yet the government are sponsoring a new wave of road-building
across the country, using money that would be much better spent on
improving public transport," said Abby Nicol, a spokesperson for the
Combe Haven Defenders, who have organised a protest camp near Hastings.
The
Dongas say they have been proved right. "Everything that we warned
people about 20 years ago is now happening. I remember sitting around
the fire and saying that if we did not act, there would be no ice left
and great changes in the weather. Well it's here now," said Plows.
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