ROADS, RUNWAYS AND RESISTANCE : from the newbury bypass to extinction rebellion

'As a movement for social change it is important that we understand our own history. This is a compelling read.' From the anti-roads protests of the 1990s to HS2 and Extinction Rebellion, conflict and protest have shaped the politics of transport. In 1989, Margaret Thatcher's government announced 'the biggest road-building programme since the Romans.' This is the inside story of the thirty tumultuous years that have followed. Roads, Runways and Resistance draws on over 50 interviews with government ministers, advisors and protestors - many of whom, including 'Swampy', speak here for the first time about the events they describe. It is a story of transport ministers undermined by their own Prime Ministers, protestors attacked or quietly supported by the police, and smartly-dressed protestors who found a way onto the roof of the Houses of Parliament. Today, as a new wave of road building and airport expansion threatens to bust Britain's carbon budgets, climate change protestors find themselves on a collision course with the government. Melia asks, what difference did the protests of the past make? And what impacts might today's protest movements have on the transport of the future? Cover Contents Preface Timeline of Events List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements 1. The Biggest Road-Building Programme Since the Romans (1989-92) 2. Direct Action, Arrests and Unexplained Violence 3. The Newbury Bypass, Reclaim the Streets and ‘Swampy’ 4. The Biggest Hit on the Road Programme Since the Romans Left (1992-7) 5. Integrated Transport, the New Labour Ideal (1997-2000) 6. The Fuel Protests and their Aftermath 7. How Road Pricing Came to London - and Nowhere Else 8. Airport Expansion and Climate Change 9. The Campaign Against a Heathrow Third Runway 10. High-Speed Rail 11. HS2 12. Return to Road-building and Airport Expansion (2010-17) 13. The Climate Rebellion Begins 14. The Climate Emergency Changes the Transport World 15. Protest and the Limits to Growth of Transport - and Other Things Afterword Notes Index Chronicling 30 years of public protest, government U-turns and environmental destruction, this is the story of Britain's transport policy