Rebels from across the south west created pop-up cycle lanes and joined socially distanced bike rides during the No Going Back action over the weekend of 16/7 May.
Cirencester, Bournemouth, Exeter, Totnes, Truro and other local groups joined a nationwide action calling on the Government to prioritise public health and well-being by investing in safer streets for walking and cycling as the UK lockdown is eased.
Rebels from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole came out early on Sunday morning to “Reclaim the Streets” by creating a pop up cycle lane on the East Avenue Roundabout – a notoriously dangerous spot for cyclists. Armed with chalk spray and stencils and maintaining physical distance they decorated the road with a series of brightly coloured bicycles.
Rebels from Exeter, hit the news headlines with their pop up cycle lane and socially distanced “critical mass” cycle ride through the City Streets. Devon Live claimed the group “caused” confusion on the roads of Exeter.
Extinction Rebellion Truro, organised a flag-waving socially distanced ride around the city.
The actions were designed to highlight the government’s hypocrisy in spending £27bn on a road building programme in the face of the climate crisis and the news that millions of people are determined to “get on their bikes” to enable social distancing as the Coronavirus lockdown is eased.
Exeter’s Caspar Hughes, 48 of Stop Killing Cyclists said “A simple way to reduce transport emissions is to make cycling convenient and safe. 70 per cent of all journeys are less than 5 miles – in the age of e-bikes virtually everyone can cycle such a distance.”
The government has said that Local Authorities should take measures to reallocate road space to people walking and cycling, “as swiftly as possible” given the urgent need to change travel habits before the restart takes full effect. Under new powers a local authority may take immediate action to impose lower speed limits and install temporary, life saving, low cost infrastructure, such as pop-up cycle lanes.
The ‘Change is Now’ bus tour started in Bournemouth and toured around the South West including to Exeter, Teignmouth and Taunton. Bringing rebels and creativity and music with it, the tour was a great opportunity to do outreach. We gave out a lot of leaflets , did lots of art blocking and signed up people […]
Autonomous activists occupied the Queen Camel Oak in her final weeks on earth to extend her life in a bid to protect her. Unfortunately, this Ancient, 450 year old, Oak tree was lost to the destructive grip of the RIS2 road building scheme, a £140 million scheme to dual the road. The tree stood near […]
Rebels from the South West who held Oil Firm Valero to account for their dirty business processing fossil fuels and polluting our rising seas at our South West Summer Uprising on 17th July.
Successfully occupying the grounds of Cornwall Council in Truro, and stealthily erecting their tents overnight, activists from all over Cornwall delivered a two week programme of events, talks and workshops for the community and for councillors to attend. At first the campers were met with distrust and asked to leave, but after a few days […]
Photo credit: Gav Goulder Press Release – February 10th, 10am For Immediate release A coalition of investors, who own the Camborne constituency office of Environment Minister George Eustice, announced today that they have donated all of his rent so far to the Insulate Britain campaign. In the run up to the Extinction Rebellion protests at […]
Unofficial estimates suggest around 2,000 rebels took part in 3 days of creative and occasionally disruptive actions at the G7 summit in Cornwall from June 11-13th. Many arrived on foot or bike after epic multi-day treks. This roundup focusses on some of the actions we may have missed while preparing for or particpating in the […]
Photos: Serena Shellenberg, Joao Daniel Pereira, Gareth Morris, Ilya Fisher, Chris Jerrey The theme for the final day of our actions in Cornwall was ‘All hands on deck’ as the G7 proved to be yet another failed opportunity for change. We are clear that all sections of society must work towards creating a better world […]
Photos by: Gareth Morris, Chris Jerrey, Ilya Fisher, Tristian Herbert, Robin Markland, Joao Daniel Periera, Denise Laura Baker The theme for Day Two of the Extinction Rebellion G7 summit actions was ‘Greenwash’. Its purpose: to expose rich countries and their banking systems which talk about ‘green growth’ while continuing to prop up carbon polluting companies […]
