No 47, August 2002
Wood you believe it?
Campaigners rally with message of hope for Titnore
A NEW era
of hope is dawning over the future of Titnore Woods in Durrington, threatened
by property developers and their bulldozers. Well, there is if you believe
Worthing Borough Council anyway, with the new Liberal Democrat
regime announcing it will be pushing for the area to be included within the
new National Park's boundaries to protect it. Whether or not these fine words
will turn into anything more tangible is being questioned by some cynics -
more of that shortly. But one group of opponents to the development is keen to
take up the mantle of positive thinking that has been conjured up by the local
authority. Ye Olde Friends of Titnore have announced that they
will be sending a special delegation to the home of landowner Mr Somerset on
Sunday September 1 - and they want as many people as possible to come
with them. Their purpose is not to pelt his home with cow dung or pour
weedkiller over his front lawn, but merely to communicate to him an excellent
idea they have dreamt up. They will be handing over a special scroll inviting
Mr Somerset to enter into a covenant with the people of Worthing to preserve
the future of Titnore Woods "for our children, our children's children and
our children's children's children". The idea is that Mr Somerset, for all
his potential money-making land deals, must in essence be a decent fair-minded
man with a keen love of the countryside and concern for the welfare of the
people of Worthing. It may not have occurred to him that he could quite easily
decide not to flog the land off after all, and instead set it aside as a
wildlife haven, a green oasis on the fringe of urban Durrington,
opening up access for the good people of the borough, nurturing endangered
habitats, perhaps even encouraging the return of traditional Sussex
inhabitants like red squirrels or otters (there is a stream through the
woods). Such a gesture would ensure that the name of his family is not tainted
and tarnished forever by unsavoury associations with miles of tarmac and
concrete and vanloads of riot police ensuring that the profitable destruction
of our environment by the likes of millionaire crook Gerald Ronson can go
ahead uninterrupted. No, instead the name Somerset could even be given to the
new green jewel on the Sussex Coast. Imagine - Somerset Woodland
Trust... Somerset Squirrel Sanctuary... Somerset
People's Democratic Organic Nature and Wildlife Eco-Paradise. There
could be a statue of Mr Somerset himself at the entrance to the park at the
south end of the now grassed-over Titnore Lane, designed to include a nesting
box for small birds under each arm, to symbolise the nurturing and caring
nature of the man who saved Titnore Woods - for ever! Anyone who wants to help
Ye Olde Friends of Titnore deliver this message of hope to Mr Somerset should
gather at the Coach and Horses pub on the A27 Arundel Road - right at the
western edge of Worthing's built-up area - on Sunday September 1 at
1pm. Fancy dress is described as "optional", with a wildlife or woodland
theme suggested, and the usual banners or whatever would probably also come in
handy for this symbolic occasion. Meanwhile, confusion still reigns over the
council's "we'll get Titnore included in the National Park" statement. One
Durrington resident tells us he actually went along to a full council meeting
on July 25 to find out what was specifically proposed and found confliciting
stories and very little detailed knowledge from council leader Sheila Player
and senior colleague Bob Clare. And, for all the publicity in the press, the
issue wasn't even on the agenda... Campaigning group POW!
(Protect Our Woodland!) has issued its own comments on the proposed National
Park inclusion. It is urging its supporters to call for the whole Titnore area
to be included in the National Park. "On the 19 August 2002 the Countryside
Agency will advertise the draft AONB revocation orders. There will then be 28
days for us, the public, to make any objections direct to the Agency. Clearly
if the Titnore Lane area isn’t included those objections will be made
loud and direct." POW will be handing over its petition to the Mayor of
Worthing on the steps of Worthing Town Hall at 4pm on Thursday September
19 and invites supporters to join the occasion. * POW! has a website at
http://www.worthinga27.freeserve.co.uk
or you can write to it c/o PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ. Or get an update at
the next open meeting hosted by worthing eco-action upstairs at The Downview,
opp West Worthing station on Tuesday September 3 at 7.45pm.
Ye Olde Friends of Titnore invite you to join their friendly
delegation to visit that nice Mr Somerset on Sunday September 1, 2002. Meet
1pm, Coach & Horses, A27 Arundel Road, Durrington
Simon Jones Four
THE trial in Worthing of four supporters of
the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign following a protest last December has been
adjourned until September. The adjournment was sought by the Crown Prosecution
Service to allow them to comply with their statutory duty of disclosure. The
next hearing is set for 2.15pm on Tuesday September 3 at Worthing
Magistrates Court, Christchurch Road, Worthing. Anne Jones (Simon's
mother), Emma Aynsley (Simon's girlfriend at the the time of his death) and
Sean Currey (who was working with Simon when he was killed) are expected to be
giving evidence at the trial. The trial is expected to last five to six days.
Farah Bishnani, Crispin Dowler, Sarah McLaughlin and Carly North, all of
Brighton, are being charged under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour
Relations (consolidation) Act 1992 following the protest at Euromin’s
Shoreham dock, where Simon Jones was killed in 1998. on 3rd December 2001. All
the accused face a maximum sentence of six months in jail if found guilty.
More info from http://www.simonjones.org.uk
Mayor is a Mason
THOSE Worthing citizens who imagined that
the victory of the Lib Dems in May's elections would lead to an entirely
different type of person taking over the reins of power in the borough are
directed to The Worthing Guardian of July 5 in which we learn
that cuddly new Lib Dem mayor Eric Mardell is a Freemason. Can
anyone let us know the name of the last mayor of Worthing who wasn't either a
Freemason or married to one? We'd be fascinated to know.
Freedom not on syllabus
REMEMBER the bit in the film of Pink
Floyd's The Wall when the kids fall off the end of a conveyor
belt into a machine that turns them all into identical sausages? Well,
education's becoming more and more like that in real life, particularly for
the unfortunate students of Boundstone College in Lancing. A
report in the Lancing Herald reported on the latest hi-tech
wheeze to impose total control. It explained that the pupils "will find
themselves registered electronically as part of a new pilot scheme. The
Lancing school is one of four in the county to try out the new system, which
will include swipe cards for the pupils and instant electronic
monitoring to ensure pupils do not miss lessons during the day. It will
also allow parents to check if their child is in class via the internet."
Headteacher Richard Evea and Sally Greenwell, West
Sussex cabinet member for education and the arts, were very upbeat about the
scheme, which is, of course, funded by central Government, with Mrs Greenwell
claiming it will "ensure children are in school and able to get maximum
benefit from their education." What nobody seems to be questioning is the
psychological effect that living in this kind of environment is going to have
on young people. Cynical, suspicious folk like ourselves are beginning to
wonder if this is all part of a deliberate conditioning process. Get young
people used, at an early age, to being monitored by CCTV cameras at school and
college and they are never going to question the principle later in life. Get
them used to having all their emails intercepted and their phone calls
listened into, to their (school) bosses and parents being able to trace their
movements every second of every day and they are going to have no notion at
all there even can be such a thing as a right to privacy. The concept of
freedom will, as George Orwell once warned, simply have died out.
Meanwhile, a more subtle move towards keeping young people in their place was
revealed in the main front page article in The Observer on July
21. This detailed a complaint by the very unpleasant Institute of
Directors that "exams have become too easy and too many pupils are
pushed into sub-standard university courses". The big question here, it
seems to us, is not whether the IoD is right or wrong in its claim, but why it
is bothering making it - and apparently spending six months preparing a report
on the subject. Why is an extreme capitalist business organisation so
concerned about the pass level for pupils' exams? It’s not as if the
skills learnt in GCSEs are going to be directly relevant to the way people
perform their jobs when they start work. The answer, we suspect, is that the
IoD simply objects to the larger number of young people receiving academic
qualifications and university degrees. Why? Because qualified people have
expectations. They form this silly idea in their head that they have something
to offer the world, that they've got a brain and want to use it. Crucially,
qualified young people are not generally going to be very enthusiastic about
settling down to a life of subsistence wages tedium in a bottling factory or a
call centre. And that, we think you'll find, is what's pissing off the
business fat cats at the IoD.
Crime of the Month
"THREE 12-year-old children playing a
James Bond game with a plastic toy pistol were surrounded by police from three
patrol cars, arrested, fingerprinted and required to give DNA samples,"
reported The Guardian on August 3. The report added:
"Northumbria police, who also issued the two boys and a girl with a formal
reprimand, the juvenile equivalent of a caution, said guidelines issued by the
Home Office in April gave them no choice. "The reprimand by a senior officer
carried out in the parents’ presence two days after the arrest, will
stay on police records for three years, but the prints and DNA will be kept
for life." You couldn’t make it up...
Y CCTV?
CCTV cameras are totally useless in preventing or
detecting crime. That’s the conclusion reached by a Worthing trader with
first hand experience. Duncan Stewart of Duncan Stewart Textiles in Ivy Arch
Road wrote to the Worthing Herald (June 26) explaining that
despite the presence of a camera there has been a spate of thefts and damage.
He added: "The police were called in regarding the break-in and gave us a
crime number and we have heard nothing since. Upon asking if we could see the
CCTV film, we were advised it was not possible and in any event unlikely to
have caught anything on film. It appears that although the Ivy Arch traders
have paid towards the camera and its upkeep, they have no rights whatsoever to
see what may have taken place on any given day." So if CCTV cameras don't
fight crime what are they for? Better ask George Orwell - or the
headteacher of Boundstone College...
War a bunch of liars!
SOME readers may recall that last year
(October 2001) we pointed out that the war against Afghanistan was not
really the response to the events of September 11 that it was made out to be -
the military action had already been proposed by the USA several months
previously. Well, as Bush and his obedient poodle Blair edge towards another
war - this time against Iraq - it will be worth keeping mind an incident
reported by The Observer on August 4. This involved US
Under Secretary for Arms Control John Bolton admitting on BBC Radio 4
that the business about weapons inspections, which up to now has been the
excuse for any talk of waging war on Iraq - was totally irrelevant. He
revealed that US policy "insists on regime change in Baghdad and that
policy will not be altered, whether inspectors go in or not." In other
words it is US policy to depose with force any government in the world it does
not like and replace it with one that will go along with the American
capitalist agenda. Not exactly news to students of modern history but a bit of
a bombshell if you’ve been naive enough to believe all the hype about
"democracy" and "freedom" being beamed at us through the media.
So when some new pressing reason for a war on Iraq turns up in your paper or
on TV over the next month or two, to try and brainwash people into supporting
a conflict that nobody wants, please do us a favour. DON’T BELIEVE A
PORKIN’ WORD OF IT!
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
FORMER Tory councillor Rikki
Orridge really plumbed the depths of bad taste in his anti-cannabis
rant in the letters pages of The Worthing Herald when he
suggested that the ill effects of the weed could be gauged from the appearance
of Chris Baldwin, pro-cannabis campaigner and now Rowlands Road
shopkeeper. Mr Baldwin, as many readers were aware, is disabled. Happily Mr
Orridge has now apologised in print for his cruel comment so there's no need
for any further reference to it.
* * *
WATCH out! Plans are afoot to encourage the police to come along and steal
your beer in Worthing! Plans to ban drinking in the streets have been dredged
up again. A report in The Worthing Herald on July 11 seemed to
think this issue was all about "drunken behaviour in the town centre", somehow
ignoring the obvious fact that most sloshed people on the streets at night
have spent the last few hours in a pub! Is it somehow worse to be drunk on a
few cans bought from an offie rather than on over-priced lager from a
tarted-up sports bar? Watch this space for news of a mass drink-in to
challenge this nasty little proposal!
* * *
FAIR Trade campaigners from Worthing joined an estimated 10,000 strong "lobby
queue" outside the House of Commons. They called for the urgent reform of
global trade rules to stop global Big Business trampling all over farmers in
the third world. Contact the Worthing branch of the World Development
Movement via their HQ on 020 7738 3311.
* * *
POLICE are believed to be launching a major investigation at the
Worthing Herald offices in Chatsworth Road after a concerned
member of the public noticed that every single humorous anecdote had gone
missing from the weekly "Monty" column - for the ninth time in two months.
* * *
THE next meeting hosted by Worthing eco-action will be at 7.45pm
on Tuesday September 3 upstairs at The Downview pub opposite West Worthing
station.
* * *
ARE the Tories really as opposed to the use of cannabis as they make out? We
couldn’t help wondering after spotting the builders’ sign outside
their Worthing HQ of those grand masters in the art of masonry BE High
and Son (geddit?). Members of the public should be careful who
they share a smoke with in the Union Place area... or they might end up
looking like Rikki Orridge.
Crime - a clarification
THE Minister for the Moral High
Ground issued the following clarification yesterday: "Drinking lager
in Victoria Park in Worthing is a crime. Drinking champagne in your massive
back garden in West Chiltington is not a crime. Playing with a plastic gun in
the street, no matter what your age, is a crime. Dropping bombs on men, women
and children in Afghanistan, Iraq or Palestine is not a crime. Protesting
against the death of a worker is a crime. Allowing people to be killed while
working for you is not a crime. Straying on to a road while trying to save
ancient woodland and wildlife is a crime. Building a road that destroys
ancient woodland and wildlife is not a crime. I hope this is now clear. God
Save the Queen. Good night."
Brings home the bacon!
THE PORK-BOLTER, set up in 1997, is a
local independent newsletter named after an old nickname for Worthing people.
This dates back to its fishing village days and is thought to refer either to
a superstitious fear of pigs (recently revived in the Titnore Lane area) or a
bacon-based remedy for sea-sickness. To get the next six issues through the
post send a donation of at least £3 payable to The Porkbolter. Drop us a
line at PO Box 4144, Worthing, West Sussex BN14 7NZ. Send e-mail to porkbolter@eco-action.org. e-mail
subscriptions are also available.
Printed and published by The Pork-Bolter, PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ.
No copyright. No water pistol fights
and finally ...
Reclaim Your Town, Reclaim Your Life!
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