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LOCAL HISTORY PREVIOUS | NEXT | BROWSE ARCHIVES The M11 Link Road 1993-1999 In september 1993, after three public enquiries and two High Court challenges, and amidst local fury, work started on a 6km stretch of road that was to connect the Redbridge Roundabout to the A12 at Hackney Wick. The building of this road, known as the M11 Link Road, had been opposed and fought by local residents since 1963. Sir Winston Churchill, as Wanstead's MP, opposed the road when it was first discussed in the 1920s. Over six years later on 6th October 1999, after going way over budget - the road is estimated to have cost £69 million per kilometre - and some two years past the original deadline, the road was finally opened to traffic by the Chief Executive of the UK Highway Agency, Mr Lawrie Haynes. The Highway Agency claimed that the opening of the road would reduce journey times by up to an hour along the route at peak times, and reduce accidents on local roads by up to 100 per year. The five contractors involved in the contracts for building this road at the cost of £69 million per kilometre, were Norwest Holst, Nuttall, Kvaerner, Fitzpatrick and Sir Robert McAlpine, the project being designed and managed by WS Atkins. Digging up the George Green More than 400 houses lost The road was pushed through Wanstead, Leytonstone and Leyton. Beautiful old houses that had stood along Cambridge Park for years were demolished to make way for the construction, many having been compulsarily purchased many years before and laying vacant, waiting to be torn down. Hundreds more faced the same fate in Leytonstone and Leyton. Fortunately for Wanstead, a stretch of the road was put through a tunnel, preserving the area adjacent to the George Green. The George Green Tunnel was described by the Highways Agency as technically the most difficult of the four contracts awarded - construction of the 300 metre cut-and-cover tunnel took place just three metres above the tunnels of the nearby London Underground Central Line. The building project went ahead despite and during massive protests from angry locals and seasoned anti-road protestors drawn in from Twyford Down and further afield. From the moment that the work started, organised protests took place including protestors perching themselves in trees, chaining themselves to diggers, and squatting in the houses that lay in the path of the road. The Chestnut Tree, Wanstonia and Claremont Road In 1993, in the middle of George Green, stood a 250 year old chestnut tree. The tree had been occupied by two protestors, Dave Green and Tania Bone, who had created a tree house complete with kitchenette and double bed. They managed to have the tree house recognised as an official residence at the High Court - thanks in part to having their own letterbox in the tree, to which some 400 letters of goodwill were delivered by the Royal Mail - preventing the Department of Transport from evicting them. Further down the road in Cambridge Park, six empty houses lying in the path of the road were occupied from where, on the 13th january 1994, the Independent Free Area of Wanstonia was declared. A copy of the declaration was sent to the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, who chose not to reply. But both protests were eventually dismantled by the authorities. On 7th December 1993, more than 300 policemen arrived to clear the George Green area and to let the diggers in to tear down the Chestnut Tree, to the screams and tears of protesters of every age. Similarly, two months later on 16 February 1994, an estimated 700 police and security staff surrounded and sealed off the Wanstonia community and spent all day clearing the house of protesters, before moving in with diggers to knock them down. A further major protest took place in Claremont Road in Leytonstone, where a whole row of houses were occupied and turned into an artistic community centre. Many commuters on the Central Line may remember the bright and colourful artwork and banners adorning the whole row of houses running alongside the track. But despite being bravely defended by the residents and protestors, this street too was cleared and demolished in the name of the progress. Battle lost, war won ? The estimated cost of security for the road project was over £21 million, but the true damage done by the protestors was in turning public opinion against the government's massive road building plans. The protests may have failed in its original aim of stopping the construction of the link road, but they drew huge publicity for their cause from all over the world, with the images of ranks of police vans and security guards mounting heavy-handed actions to remove peaceful protestors from houses and trees making for good and dramatic news stories. Aileen Brownlee, a member of Wanstead Against the M11 Link Road, said: "In the end we lost the battle over the link but won the war over road building. The protest against this road project and the publicity it engendered played a major part in changing Government thinking and bringing about the present moratorium on road building." See also these other related articles: The M11 Link Road Resources used in researching this article: Life in the Fast Lane - The NO M11 Story UK IndyMedia - Tenth Anniversary of the Siege of Wanstonia