Newbury bypass
This route was very controversial because it ran through three Sites of Special Scientific Interest: Snelsmore Common plus the Rivers Lambourn and Kennet; Penn Wood which was part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty); the English Heritage registered battlefield site of the first Battle of Newbury during the English Civil War in 1643; and The Chase, a National Trust nature reserve.
Opponents argued that the decision was flawed and possibly illegal as there was no Environmental Impact Assessment — a legal requirement incorporated into British law two weeks after the start of the 1988 public enquiry.
[6] The bypass led to immense protests in an attempt to halt the felling of trees (including mature oak, ash, and beech) and the start of building work.
In 1994, a local comprehensive school teacher, Helen Anscombe, founded "The Third Battle of Newbury", an umbrella group of organisations against the bypass.
Clearance work began on 2 August 1995 when bulldozers demolished six empty buildings in the path of the bypass – three houses, a railway signal box, a lodge at Mary Hare Grammar School for deaf children and a prefabricated church near Snelsmore Common.
A network of tunnels 10 feet (3 m) down was dug at Snelsmore Common in the belief that heavy machinery would not drive over them in case they collapsed, burying the protesters inside.
By the following month the number of protesters had increased and there were more than 20 camps along the route of the bypass, with names such as 'Skyward', 'Rickety Bridge', 'Granny Ash', 'Quercus Circus', 'Sea View', 'Babble Brook', 'Radical Fluff', 'Pixie Village' and 'Heartbreak Hotel'.
Peter Faulding was called in by the authorities to plan and safely remove the environmental protesters from a network of tunnels along the proposed route of the Newbury Bypass.
Andy MacNae of the British Mountaineering Council said "Climbers have an enviable environmental record, and the vast majority will be outraged at being associated with actions of this kind."
Climber and writer Jim Perrin said "If we, as a community, do not disown and ostracise these mercenaries and renegades, we are undermining the reason for our own existence and helping accelerate the destruction of places we hold most dear".
[11] On Monday 29 January there was a public meeting at the Waterside Centre in Newbury organised jointly by Friends of the Earth and the Green Party to promote the Road Traffic Reduction Bill.
At the meeting, environmentalist and broadcaster Dr David Bellamy addressed the crowd of around 400 people and voiced his opposition to the building of the bypass.
On 15 February 1996 around 5,000 people from around the UK marched for 2 miles (3 kilometres) along the route from the largest camp at Snelsmore Common to Bagnor in objection to the road.
A national poll published in the Newbury Weekly News (10 March 1996) found that 53% of respondents thought that "work should stop immediately to allow time for alternatives to be tried".
[18] In January 2016, a BBC magazine article commemorating the events of 20 years earlier showed 200,000 new trees starting to mature and the mutual respect but not affection between the former protagonists.
