Protest tunnelling in the United Kingdom is a form of
protest involving the construction of subterranean
tunnels. It is typically used against the development of new road and transport infrastructure projects.
Protest tunnelling has been utilised by protestors since the 1990s in the United Kingdom. Protests against the construction of the
Newbury bypass and the extension of the
A30 road in
Fairmile, Devon
Fairmile is a hamlet in the English county of Devon. It lies on the former A30 trunk road approximately west of Honiton, where this road crosses the Talaton to Ottery St Mary road, in the valley of the River Tale. Fairmile belongs partly to the ...
used tunnels. The activist
Swampy was the last to emerge from the tunnel built to protest the A30, having been underground for seven days.
bailiff
A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...
s to remove ground encampments and tree houses built by protestors.[ Construction machinery cannot drive on ground that has been tunnelled without a risk to the protestors within.][
]
Notable protest tunnels
*1996 — Newbury bypass in Berkshire[
*1997 — Against a second runway at ]Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...
Bexhill-to-Hastings Link Road
East Sussex is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, ...
[
*2021 — A 100ft tunnel was built under Euston Square Gardens by HS2 Rebellion to protest the construction of a taxi rank that would serve the expansion of ]Euston railway station
Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...
for High Speed 2.Swynnerton
Swynnerton is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It lies in the Borough of Stafford, and at the 2001 census had a population of 4,233, increasing to 4,453 at the 2011 Census.
Swynnerton is listed in the Domesday Book identifyi ...
as part of protests against High Speed 2.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Disco Dave's tunnelling guide
Protests in the United Kingdom
Protest tactics
Tunnel construction