Farewell Camp Bling, our job here is done (From Echo)

Farewell Camp Bling, our job here is done

8:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009 in

By Alex McNally »

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IT WAS a four-year lifestyle of tree-top homes and nature on the doorstep, but now Camp Bling is moving on.

Campaigners had been living on the site to prevent Southend Council from pushing ahead with plans to widen Priory Crescent, but when the council backed down earlier this year, Camp Bling began to come down.

Protesters have been dismantling the camp, which consists of 17 makeshift wooden huts and tree houses. But they are far from sad the camp – which for many has been their home – is being taken down.

Nadine Bourne, 26, lived at the site for a year and now lives in Bristol.

She said: “Life at the camp could be tough – there were ups and downs. There was abuse from passers-by. But it didn’t last long, and we had lots of support from the community.

“I don’t feel sad the camp is coming down, it is actually really positive. It has been a success and achieved what it set out to do.”

People on the camp tried to make life as harmonious as possible, with Blingers living a “low impact” lifestyle using recycled material, and solar and wind energy. The site even has its own cat, Ginger.

The base started out as just one platform in a tree covered with tarpaulin, but it soon grew into a mini-village – which should be completely gone by the end of July.

And these green campaigners are taking the meaning of recycling to the next level, as some of the material used to create Camp Bling is being taken to another protest site at Titnore woods, Worthing, West Sussex, where people are campaigning against Tesco.

Shaun Qureshi, 37, one of the founding members of Bling, said soon no one would know they were ever there.

He said: “We are doing it as sympathetically as possible to minimise the impact.

“All that can be seen from the huts we have taken down is a patch of soil, which we dig over. Grass is already growing back.”

The campaign to stop the road began eight years ago, before Camp Bling, but for many of the Blingers the camp has shaped their lives.

Shaun added: “We are not necessarily expecting people to agree with us, but it is good to see something like this in the local community. It shows things don’t have to be the way they are – we all have choices and we have to be prepared to face up to the consequences of those choices.

“A lot of material is being reused and recycled. Ideally we are avoiding landfill. A lot of the stuff here was second-hand when we got it.

“There is a lot of nature here, but I have a feeling the council will come and strim it within an inch of its life.

Shaun has not made up his mind about what to do next. He added: “We need to look at the way we live. We need to be aware of peak oil and climate change.”

The determined protesters first set up the camp in 2005, following the discovery of a Saxon king’s burial ground on the site.

The name of the camp took its inspiration from the Sun newspaper, which dubbed the Saxon king buried in the tomb the King of Bling, because gold crosses were found during the archaeological dig.

Comments(63)

DannyK86 says...
9:14am Wed 24 Jun 09

So it seems the vast majority are moving elsewhere to other protests or back where they came from, despite their claims that most of them were 'locals'.