Here is a brief history of how we did it:
- We started with a public meeting in early May 2003 arranged by the Parish Council. That led to a committee of ten people with the Vice Chair of the Parish as the Chairman. The Parish Council said that it would reimburse appropriate expenses up to a limit. The local MP issued a strong anti-mast press release, before we asked him BBC Radio in Barnstaple were good and did an interview which was repeated all day. The BBC in Plymouth were then helpful with a TV interview + article on the news all day.
- We printed a Newsletter in mid-May and hand delivered about 500 of them in the local area. We also cultivated the local press and the North Devon Journal (a weekly newspaper) ran a major article on the Masts every week for 12 weeks. They also had a tear-off box for people to fill in and then send back to the North Devon Journal - instant petition.
- A separate protest group had already been established in Mid-Devon and we attended one of their meetings held at Yeoford + spoke and gave the local councillors a hard time. We gradually joined up with them and still have a joint committee with six members. We have assigned jobs - one person is the official spokesperson, so he talks to the press and media. Another member in Mid-Devon is our official contact with Madelene Klaasen-Bos of Network Rail. We have an ex-High Court judge as a member, who does the legal digging, and a well informed scientist who works in the health sector.
- We gave a series of public meetings up and down the Taw valley, always via the parish council. The format was a powerpoint presentation with two presenters doing a double act, followed by questions. There was a very good public meeting arranged in Mid-Devon to which Network Rail were invited and spoke - they were decimated - we had people planted in the audience with questions and the North Devon MP gave a powerful speech. We held petition events on local market days, with six petition collectors at each. The most effective opening line to passers by is "Will you please sign our petition?" - it worked every time, as people always ask what the petition is about and then you are in.
- Gradually we lost members of the Committee, including the Chair, so we held another local public meeting in July to bring people up to date, but also to get new blood. We then got another (new) six committee members to join the three left from the original ten. One of the new members cultivated the Environment Editor (Charles Clover) of the Daily Telegraph, resulting in the article on Monday 8th September, followed by another article in the Sunday Telegraph. Letters appeared the following Sunday. BBC Countryfile spotted the article in the Daily Telegraph, and came down to Devon for a series of interviews. They also interviewed Iain Croucher, the deputy Chief Executive of Network Rail.
- On 23rd July, the North Devon District Council invited Network Rail + ourselves to speak. Again Network Rail were decimated - their presentation was very short and comprised "we are going to build the masts because we need them, we will listen to your objections (because we have to 'consult') and we may move them up to 250 meters if you insist. Any questions?" The North Devon District Council decided to set up a special committee to find an alternative to the Masts and employ an expert to provide impartial advice.
- Four weeks ago, Madelene Klaasen-Bos turned up at the first meeting of the special committee and announced her bombshell - a complete change of heart by Network Rail for the Tarka Line, subject to approval by the SRA and the HSE. We await her update later next month.
I think that the key factor was that we had a plan: (a) Inform local people and keep informing them with public meetings and hand-delivered readable, useful, interesting Newsletters. (b) Encourage them to write to local councillors, the MP, Network Rail, SRA etc - and we made it easy for them to do so by putting all the names and address in our Newsletters. (c) Get local press on side and arrange articles and interviews so that they have something to write and pictures of protestors - usually at very short notice. (d) Cultivate national newspaper editors (primarily environment editors). (e) Talk to the local radio and TV and get them to do interviews for broadcast + publicise the public meetings. (f) Hope that the national TV gets interested - which Countryfile did and BINGO - your friendly Network Rail gets invited to 10 Downing Street to be asked what on earth all the fuss is about and pls can they make it go away!
Colin Browne
Tarka Line Action Group