Archive - Wednesday, 3 September 2003


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Residents make a stand

LOCAL residents, police and developers remain at loggerheads this week over the building of a skatepark in Chepstow.

The protesters have held up work on the skate park, planned for Piggy's Hill in Bulwark, for three weeks now and say they have no intention of backing down.

The stand-off took a dramatic turn on Wednesday when the local authority ordered contractors to send a 13-tonne digger crashing through a fence on the site at 4am.

More than 40 local residents left their beds to stop the vehicle and even set up tents and a shelter in order to guard the site round the clock.

Resident Steve Champion said: "We'll be here 24/7 because we disagree with the proposed location of the site."

Residents, who called the act "institutional vandalism", voted to stand in front of the digger despite police advising arrests would be made.

Jon Griffin, director of Blakedown Landscapes, the firm responsible for the site, said: "It's frustrating that we're still being disrupted."

Protesters have also found a legal way to stop construction vehicles from entering the park from the designated entrance in St George Road.

Liberal Democrat town councillor Phil Hobson, involved in the protest, said: "People who say community spirit is dead should come and see us. Residents have been fantastic and are simply making a stand for what they believe in."

County councillor Chris Meredith, who is backing the residents, said: "Barging through the fence like that with no notice to residents in the middle of the night was a diabolical act of vandalism."

On Thursday police put up notices advising protesters that they were trespassing on the site as of 11am.

And the council says construction work will go ahead.

But protesters say new planning permission is required for the revised entrance and construction site.

County councillor Cliff Meredith said: "We want to see plans for the revised site. The planning committee does not meet until a week on Tuesday. This needs their approval."