strategies...
media hits...
lobbying...
legal actions...
consensus building...
success...
At ALARM UK, Save our Railways and Transport 2000, I've been at the heart of the struggle for the soul of British transport policy over the last fifteen years. We may not have won every battle, but we have made enormous progress. Fifteen years ago public transport was an industry which was seen as facing inevitable decline, whilst road building ruled transport policy. Now there's an across the board consensus that public transport must expand. This fundamental shift didn't happen by accident....
Founder and convenor of the Oxleas strategy group. Oxleas Wood is a rare surviving patch of ancient woodland in South East London which was threatened by a new East London River Crossing. Although approval for the road had already been given, its proximity to central London was an opportunity to make Oxleas wood a symbol for the road programme as a whole - a 'line in the sand' for the environmental movement. The strategy group was set up to bring local campaigns together with national environmental NGOs. Like all the best campaigns it was fought on every level, from letter writing stalls in the high street to systematic lobbying of politicians. There was an 'adopt a tree' scheme (the aim of which was to get every tree in the wood adopted), legal challenges, 'beat the bulldozer' pledges and public rallies. In the end, faced with the danger of confronting a united community and environment movement in its own backyard - the Government backed down. Before the Government's climbdown on Oxleas Wood, road schemes were rarely defeated - after Oxleas Wood scheme after scheme was dropped.
Joint founder and coordinator of ALARM UK - the national network of anti-roads campaigns (1989 to 1996). We smashed the national roads programme, reducing it from more than 500 schemes to 150, turning road building into a symbol for wider environmental concerns and turning around UK transport policy in the process. This involved setting up an alliance of community groups from up and down the country - keeping them informed, networked and supplied with moral and practical support. It meant marrying up grassroots opposition with the policy arguments against encouraging more traffic through road building. It meant getting the media on-side, organising national conferences and demonstrations, and working with wider alliances of NGOs and local authorities. It also meant creating the conditions in which direct action could take root. As it did, first at Twyford Down, and then right across the country. In the end the scale of the opposition was unmanageable and the road programme collapsed. Former Transport Minister, Steven Norris MP, described it as 'the most profound change to have happened to any Department of State in any sphere of Government over the last thirty or forty years'. ALARM UK won the international Goldman Award for grassroots environmental campaigns - the first every UK winner.
Save our Railways campaign director, 1995 to 2000. Despite a modest budget we became one of Britain's most high profile campaigns - with a massive media presence. We took the Government to the Court of Appeal...and won. We fought a daily battle for hearts and minds over the airwaves - from the Today programme to Newsnight. We won that too. We won that battle by always being there for the media, and by pumping out a constant stream of media stories - strong on both facts and hard hitting comment. Although we may not have stopped rail privatisation we helped ensure that the fate of the railways was ever present in the media and that the terms of the debate were defined by passengers' priorities. The high profile we helped give the railways remains to this day - contributing to the railway's current status as a touchstone for the Government's record on public services.
Reestablished Transport 2000's Platform rail campaign and information network (2000 to 2001). After Save our Railways there was still a need for an effective rail lobby. Platform plays to Transport 2000's strengths which is its ability to bring together NGOs, rail user groups, local authorities and trade unions. From a standing start a powerful coalition has been brought together based around national open forums and a national bulletin. Early achievements of the Platform network are helping in the campaign to save Northern Ireland Railways, preventing land the railways needed for expansion from being sold off for development, making the case for a Railtrack Trust, and effectively promoting the importance of 'soft' and 'passenger' issues.
'Jonathan Bray is a great campaigner'
Rail Magazine