Rising Up

 This morning I visited the Rising Up camp off Frenchay Park Road, where a group of people are protesting against the destruction of prime agricultural land in order to develop the site for the Metrobus scheme.

The background and history of this campaign can be found on the Rising Up website.  No one is denying the importance of public transport but the Metrobus scheme has been discredited, while the land it threatens is Grade 1-3 Best and Most Versatile soil and home to smallholdings and allotments.  All this takes place in Bristol's year as Green Capital of Europe and the United Nations' Year of the Soils!

Back to the camp which is well organised but, after yesterday's rain, is wet and muddy.  The site is dotted with tents pitched on pallets to keep them dry, a communal kitchen with a fire on which to cook and gather round to eat, and a compost loo.  There are variety of shelters in the trees, including one designed as a birdbox, and protestors take it in turns to sleep up in the branches.

I spent an hour or so looking round the site and chatting to the protestors, asking them why they were there and how they were coping with living in the wild.  They are a diverse bunch of individuals but with a single commitment, to protect this piece of precious land from the developers.  I admire their courage and determination and feel slightly ashamed of my reluctance to join them.  I left them a rucksackful of food and a gingerbread cake by way of compensation.

If you live in or around Bristol and would like to support them in some way they have drawn up a list of  ten things you might like to do.