Spring fair's success boosts BALI "war chest"

THE busy scene in St Martha's Church Hall this morning with its well-stocked stalls was light-years away from the scenario volunteers are working to prevent.

Bexhill Against Landfill/Incineration has campaigned for the past two years to raise more than 20,000.

Through events like Saturday's spring fair and through its BALI 100 fund, the pressure group is building up a "war chest" to fund legal representation should an application ever be made to use the Turkey Road brickworks quarries as a rubbish dump.

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The quarries, only 100 metres from Bexhill High Woods, a Site of Speciali Scientific Interest and only 1,500 metres from the nearest houses, are zoned in the county waste plan for landfill.

As bargain-hunters scoured the stalls, BALI chairman Nick Hollington said brick company Ibstock's contesting Rother's planned cemetery extension next to the quarries in law indicated that the landfill threat was still very much alive.

He said the public's response to the BALI 100 fund - under which supporters put 100 into the fighting fund with an assurance that their money would be returned with interest if it was not needed - showed the level of concern about the waste threat.

For organiser Julie Stillwell, success on Saturday meant stalls ranging from jewellery to jam, e-lottery, to Bexhill In Bloom, bric-a-brac and books to hand-made bird-boxes which helped boost the war chest.