Ruling on Twyford pair lifted on appeal

A COURT injunction to prevent further 'interference' by a photographer and an environment campaigner involved in the M3 protests on Twyford Down was lifted by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

The court held that the pair, Maggie Lambert of Southampton and David Plumstead, just two of dozens of people taken to court by the Department of Transport, were wrongly labelled as jointly liable with all the other trespassers for the violence and damage caused on the Hampshire motorway extension site, even though they took no part in it.

Liberty, which had supported the appeal by Mr Plumstead, an environment consultant, from Lympne, Kent, said the decision was an important victory. The DoT was ordered to pay the pair's legal costs of up to pounds 30,000.

Police are questioning two men after tents and a tree occupied by protesters against the M11 link road in east London were set alight early yesterday.