Swanley History Group – August 2017 meeting
At a time when local people are being presented with’ Master Visions’ and ’New Blueprints’, including applications to radically alter the centre of Swanley Town Centre, it is pertinent to be reminded of the late 1980’s when thousands of residents of Swanley, Sutton at Hone and surrounding villages took part in protests which made headline news - and even featured in a Spitting Image sketch.
At our August meeting Bob and Judy Brickell and Sarah Lewis, aided by photographs, maps and film clips, recalled the efforts of local people to ‘Sink the Link’. It was clear that Route 2, proposed by British Rail to provide a high speed rail link between London and The Channel Tunnel, would blight thousands of homes and rip communities apart. It did not help that, during the process, the line of Route 2 kept changing. It was discovered that the maps used when drawing up this route were the wrong scale and therefore did not show essential information such as gradients - and Sutton at Hone was missing entirely!
In Sutton at Hone British Rail offered to buy some houses close to the proposed route. Longstanding neighbourhoods were obliterated and residents who decided to stay, or were not able to sell their homes, were faced with transient renters or empty houses around them. Levels of stress and anxiety were so high that KCC provided a social worker.
In Swanley the proposed route went through the newly designed Swanley Park and burrowed under homes and gardens, emerging from a tunnel close to houses in Archer Way and Swanley Village and through ancient field systems. Quiet single track roads nearby were destined to be depots for spoil.
Action groups were set up with members busy holding events to raise fighting funds. Within eleven months Swanley Action Group raised £29,000. Posters were printed and eye catching stunts devised to attract publicity. Film clips showed locals marching with banners in Swanley and Central London and featuring a coffin and a large wolf made of papier mache. Runners with lighted torches followed the route and a mock tunnel was set alight.
The protests were successful and we avoided having the high speed link through our area though some communities took several years to recover.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser
At a time when local people are being presented with’ Master Visions’ and ’New Blueprints’, including applications to radically alter the centre of Swanley Town Centre, it is pertinent to be reminded of the late 1980’s when thousands of residents of Swanley, Sutton at Hone and surrounding villages took part in protests which made headline news - and even featured in a Spitting Image sketch.
At our August meeting Bob and Judy Brickell and Sarah Lewis, aided by photographs, maps and film clips, recalled the efforts of local people to ‘Sink the Link’. It was clear that Route 2, proposed by British Rail to provide a high speed rail link between London and The Channel Tunnel, would blight thousands of homes and rip communities apart. It did not help that, during the process, the line of Route 2 kept changing. It was discovered that the maps used when drawing up this route were the wrong scale and therefore did not show essential information such as gradients - and Sutton at Hone was missing entirely!
In Sutton at Hone British Rail offered to buy some houses close to the proposed route. Longstanding neighbourhoods were obliterated and residents who decided to stay, or were not able to sell their homes, were faced with transient renters or empty houses around them. Levels of stress and anxiety were so high that KCC provided a social worker.
In Swanley the proposed route went through the newly designed Swanley Park and burrowed under homes and gardens, emerging from a tunnel close to houses in Archer Way and Swanley Village and through ancient field systems. Quiet single track roads nearby were destined to be depots for spoil.
Action groups were set up with members busy holding events to raise fighting funds. Within eleven months Swanley Action Group raised £29,000. Posters were printed and eye catching stunts devised to attract publicity. Film clips showed locals marching with banners in Swanley and Central London and featuring a coffin and a large wolf made of papier mache. Runners with lighted torches followed the route and a mock tunnel was set alight.
The protests were successful and we avoided having the high speed link through our area though some communities took several years to recover.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser