The Alice's Meadow Campaign

A very cunning plan

The government proposal to extend the M40 motorway, along a route which was to go right through the middle of Otmoor, was first announced in 1981. A vigorous campaign by objectors (comprising an alliance of local people, councillors and environmentalists) resulted in a public inquiry in 1982/83 - which ruled against the government's proposed route.

However, despite the ruling of the public inquiry, the Department of Transport announced that it would press ahead with it's preferred route. Faced with government intransigence, members of Wheatley Friends of the Earth devised an innovative campaign to force the motorway to be diverted.

W J Weston on behalf of the Wheatley Friends of the Earth purchased a small field at Moorlands Farm. This lay on the DoT's route to the North of Otmoor. It was christened "Alice's Meadow" and sub-divided into approximately 3,500 plots, each measuring about 3.125 square metres (about 33 square feet). These plots were then sold off to members of the public and groups sympathetic with the campaign.

This alone had considerable publicity value, and gained the campaign column inches and airtime locally, nationally and internationally. However, the cunning part involved the implications under English law.

In order to construct the motorway, all the land along the route needed to be compulsorily purchased. In addition, the complete compulsory purchase procedure, (including valuation, identification of the landowner, service of compulsory purchase order, notice period etc; and all possible stages of appeal) needed to be followed for each individual plot of land. With each appeal having the potential for being a re-run of the original enquiry (which it had already lost) this was intended to make the compulsory purchase of the 3,500 plots of Alice's Meadow a very unattractive prospect for the government.

To further frustrate the development, the purchasers of the campaign plots were encouraged to subdivide and sell on their land. This greatly increased the total number of plots, and therefore the difficulty in contacting and dealing with the landowners - many of whom lived abroad.

In December 1984, just over a year after Alice's Meadow was sold off, the government began it's U-turn, announcing that although the motorway was needed, the route would have to be looked at again. Just 11 months later, in November 1985, the government's preferred route was withdrawn, and a version of the objector's route, which had been recommended by the 1982/3 inquiry was adopted. The battle to save Otmoor had been won.

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Published by J P Brettle
Last modified: 15 April 2006.