About the Campaign

About the A30 road "improvement"

The proposed new A30 Exeter to Honiton section is fifteen miles of dual carriageway which will run from junction 29 of the M5 and join on to the dual carriageway section of the existing road about three miles from Honiton.
This dual carriageway section will be widened further and will involve the destruction of a house.
This section of road will form part of two proposed Trans European Road Network (T.E.R.N.) routes. It is part of the London to Penzance trunk road (M3/A303/A30) and the South CoastRoad (A35/A30) Folkestone to Honiton.
One of the principle reasons for its construction is that it will forge the "important" link between Honiton and the M5.
Many roads in this country are being built and upgraded to T.E.R.N.s to allow for the introduction of heavier lorries with an extra axle. These vehicles are already in use in Europe.
If the new road is built, the existing A30 will be "de-trunked". This means Devon County Council will have to foot the maintenance bill. They have already admitted they will not be able to afford this and thus accident blackspots will remain, even though many drivers will still use the road. Furthermore, if the existing road is de-trunked, the adjoining land will become open to "development". In the past, applications were always turned down because the A30 couldn't cope with any more traffic joining it from access roads. Some of the local villages are now seeing hugh plots of apple orchard and farmland bought up around the villages by big house-building firms in anticipation of the development-fest that is sure to ensue once the new road opens. The village locals are understandably very upset at the prospect of the destruction of their quiet way of life by so much unwanted development.
For more information see also Exeter Friends of the Earth's pages on the A30.

The A30 Action Campaign

The public enquiry for this section was held in 1992. Clearance work began under government budget 3 months earlier than expected in late September 1994. This involved the destruction of trees and hedgerows and the construction of a new pond built to replace one in line of the route. In early October two Direct Action camps were set up at Allercombe and Fairmile. In December 1994 it was announced that the road would be postponed while it went out to private tender under a new government scheme Design, Build, Finance and Operate (D.B.F.O.).
Construction of the road was originally due to start in Spring 1995 (it's now due for autum 1996). The clearance contract which ran four months past its deadline continued until April 1995. Actions were held all hrough the winter to hamper this work with frequent clashes between Reliance Security and protesters. The third direct action camp was set up after Beltane (early May 1995), named Trollheim.
More recent campaign activities have included attempted office occupations at the headquarters of the consortium with the contract for the A30, protests on the roof of the ExeterHighways Agency offices (during their Christmas party!); extensive support for the Newbury (everyone except for about 2 people at each camp dissapeared off there!) and Sellar protests.

Recent events

July:
Contract for the construction and running of the new A30 is awarded.
August:
Under Sherrif of Devon Andrew Wilson (the very same as he who recklessly endangered lives at the Bath Eastern and Stanworth Valley protests) vists the sites. His paperwork goes astray whilst at Allercombe.
Private detectives are spotted snooping around at Fairmile.
27th: High Court dates set for eviction procedings to take place; paperwork presented to each camp.
October:
5th: 2nd aniversary of A30 Action campaign.
8th: Allercombe camp in High Court for eviction order procedings.
10th: Trollheim camp in High Court for eviction order procedings.
11th: Fairmile camp in High Court for eviction order procedings.

Contact information for A30 Action

Phone: 01404 815729
Address: PO Box 6, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, EX11, U.K.
Email: a30@fury361.demon.co.uk


Evictions are now IMMINENT

Resist this destruction ...
... or just sit at home and watch your heritage destroyed on the TV.