CAMP Bling campaigners claim it will cost Southend Council £1.5million to evict them - and they may well be right.
However, the real argument lies elsewhere and involves the future of the camp, rather than the planned dual-carriageway in Priory Crescent.
Has the time come for the campaigners to head home?
The fact is that the Blingers' cause has essentially been won. Camp Bling was set up to prevent the planned Priory Crescent road widening scheme, which originally affected both Priory Park and the burial ground of the Saxon king.
The revised and much reduced road-plan for a dual-carriageway between Cuckoo Corner and the Lookers garage, spares both of these sites.
It leaves protesters looking rather like rebels without a cause.
The do-or-die speeches, and the extensions to Camp Bling, continue as if the bailiffs and bulldozers were due at any moment.
It looks as if Camp Bling now exists for its own sake, rather than as a protest site.
As for the £1.5million, it seems unlikely anyone will bother evicting the protesters.
Camp Bling no longer stands in anyone's way. Its relevance has already been by-passed.
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