PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE 1970s CHANNEL TUNNEL DEBATE PART Ⅱ: The Garden Tunnel Alternative

摘要

Public participation in the 1970s Channel Tunnel system design debates assumed the form of protest and calls for regulation and compensation in the area most affected: the Garden of England, particularly around the tunnel entrance near Folkestone as well as the land that would be used to accommodate the increase in lorries and automobiles bound for the tunnel. The environmental protest (and the then Labour government's willingness to accommodate it) eventually led to expensive design changes to the Channel Tunnel system, and, according to most analysts, was one of the most significant factors behind the cancellation of the project in 1975 (cf. Bonavia, 1987). Far less attention has been paid to the other significant outcome of tunnel resistance in Kent, which was formulated during the public debate at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 1973, and eventually translated into a concrete system design proposal. Apart from the environmentalist voice, another set of garden interests emerged, dedicated to preserving and reviving the 'train in the garden'. More in the pastoralist tradition, social groups coalesced to formulate what may be termed the 'Garden Tunnel' alternative. In the Channel Tunnel debate of the 1970s is the story of how loosely structured public participation yielded a culturally acceptable system design.