M11 Link Road Protest - Consequences of The Protest Campaign

Consequences of The Protest Campaign

The M11 link road protest was ultimately unsuccessful in its major aim: to stop the building of the M11 link road which on completion the link road was designated as the A12 road.

Proposals for the M12 motorway were cancelled in 1994 during the first review of the trunk road program. The planned junctions 1, 2 and 3 of the M11 have never been constructed.

Direct action techniques first employed or refined at the protest have been transferred to numerous other protests around the world. Many veterans of the anti-M11 link road campaign went on to protest the construction of other road schemes such as the A34 Newbury bypass at Newbury in Berkshire; campaigns such as these helped to shift public opinion in the UK away from the unfettered building of new roads. In the years after the campaign, the Conservative administration shelved the plans for a number of proposed road schemes.

Many ex-M11 protesters went on to join other pro-environment, anti-globalisation and direct action campaigns, such as Reclaim the Streets. In the words of one former Claremont Road protestor, other ex-residents of the Claremont Road protest site went on to join the ranks of London's homeless as they had nowhere else to go after the eviction of the street. Like so many other veterans of other anti-road protest camps such as Newbury.

Several of the protesters who were imprisoned for refusing to be bound over to keep the Queen's Peace challenged the UK Government's breach of the peace legislation at the European Court of Justice.

In 2002, in response to a major new road building program and expansion of aviation, a delegation of road protest veterans visited the Department for Transport to warn of renewed direct action in response, delivering a D-lock as a symbol of the past protests. Rebecca went on to found Road Block to support road protesters and challenge the government. In 2007, Road Block became a project within the Campaign for Better Transport

No sign, relic or trace of Claremont Road remains. We always knew that one day all this would be rubble, and this awareness of impermanence gave us immense strength—-the impossibility of failure—-the strength to move this Temporary Autonomous Zone on to somewhere else. Our festival of resistance could never be evicted. We would continue to transgress the distinction between art and everyday life. We would continue to make every political act a moment of poetry. If we could no longer reclaim Claremont Road, we would reclaim the streets of London.

As such, the aftereffects of the M11 link road protests are still being felt today.

For Leytonstone, the consequences were mixed. Supporters say the road helped end the years of planning blight that had affected Leytonstone, but critics would suggest that the economic upswing and housing boom would have had the same effect. The road is still unpopular with many local people and divides the communities of Leyton and Leytonstone in half. Many residents have complained that their streets became rat runs for commuters trying to get ahead of queues or that they did not receive the compensation that they were promised or that they believe that they deserve.

On the other hand, according to a local council report, since the opening of the road there has been a significant reduction in traffic and air pollution in key roads in the Leytonstone area. At least one aim of the road was achieved: it is now much quicker for non-residents and goods traffic to get through East London.