In error, this was not sent out before on the McLibel Listserver...
16/06/00
p r e s s r e l e a s e from
McLibel Support Campaign
Residents defeat McDonald's after mammoth 552-day occupation
On Sunday 13th December 1998 local residents in Hinchley
Wood, Surrey moved caravans on to the car park of their
well-loved local pub ['The Hinchley Wood'] which had been leased
by McDonald's - their aim was to occupy the site and stop it from
being turned into a new store.
Yesterday, after exactly 18 months of controversy and
determined opposition, McDonald's threw in the towel and handed
back the lease on the pub to the original owners.
Tomorrow, June 16th 2000, after an incredible 552-day,
24hr-a-day continuous occupation (possibly the longest ever
protest occupation of its kind) local villagers organised as
residents Against McDonald's (RAM) will move their caravans off
the site as they celebrate a historic victory.
A LONG AND DETERMINED CAMPAIGN
Their campaign had at first forced McDonald's onto the
defensive, stopping any work on the site, achieving local and
national publicity, and galvanising the support of the local
residents' associations and the neighbourhood in general.
RAM had organised large public meetings, a protest march to
Downing Street, dozens of editions of their newsletter delivered
door-to-door in the village, a phone-tree support network, the
distribution of campaign posters and stickers (eg. 'On Yer Bike
McDonald's', and 'Keep Hinchley Wood Mac Free'), sponsored walks,
fetes and parties, and support for campaigning residents in other
regions of the country - and throughout the last year and a half
the staffing of the campaign office caravan in the car park.
RAM exposed the oppressive local planning laws in which
companies can steamroller over the wishes of communities, and
councils allow only very narrow grounds for objection (eg.
increased traffic problems, design etc) which fail to address
communities' concerns over the quality of their lives and
environment. Hence profiteering business chains continue to
invade neighbourhoods, often replacing green spaces and local
facilities with their standardised, mediocre products, backed up
by marketing hype.
RAM'S NATIONAL SURVEY
residents are up against current planning laws [known as ëA3
Use Classí] which automatically dismiss objections to the
transformations of local pubs into fast food stores by refusing
to recognise this as a ëchange of useí. As a consequence, the
Hinchley Wood residents have been contacting other campaigners
around the country in order to mount a campaign for the reform of
such planning laws. The UK Government Department of Transport and
the Regions have now announced a review of these laws. The
Hinchley Wood residents decided to conduct their own review by
contacting the planning departments of hundreds of local
authorities about this problem. Their report [see
www.mcspotlight.org] was released in April 2000. It summarises
the numerous responses and concludes there is widespread concern
including at the official level over this issue. The Hinchley
Wood campaigners also analysed company statistics on the
development of McDonaldís stores throughout the UK which showed
that their expansion increasingly relies on the development of
new sites outside the usual High Street locations. Hence the
threat to local community pubs is no coincidence.
All over the country, whenever the global hamburger
corporation plans to open a new store, local residents saturate
planning committees with objections, and organise angry public
meetings and protests. In many instances they have succeeded in
getting planning permission refused, or forced McDonald's to
abandon their plans.
Faced with widespread community-based opposition to the
opening of new stores, McDonaldís tactics seem to favour the
purchase of pubs precisely because of the ludicrous ëA3í planning
guidelines which enable them to avoid the usual planning
applications and objections. This controversy therefore is one
that strongly affects and angers local communities throughout the
UK.
AN INSPIRATION TO residents EVERYWHERE
Meanwhile, the McLibel Support Campaign (who had advised
Hinchley Wood residents from before they decided to occupy the
site) and the 'McSpotlight' website have made available details
of the Hinchley Wood campaign around the world, in particular to
the many other residents' groups opposing plans for new
McDonald's stores. Hinchley Wood now joins the growing list of
places in which local communities have successfully defended
themselves.
We send our solidarity to all those standing up to powerful
institutions which seek to dominate our lives and our
communities.
from The McLibel Support Campaign
contact details
McLibel Support Campaign
5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX, UK.
Tel/Fax: +44 (207) 713 1269
E-mail: mclibel@globalnet.co.uk
Web: http://www.mcspotlight.org
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