Winchester'S best known protester is fighting pneumonia in hospital - on the day he was due to be evicted from the Bar End park-and-ride site.

Arthur Pendragon, a self-styled druid king, was rushed to the Royal County Hospital by ambulance after he fell and injured his eye.

After being transferred to hospitals in Southampton and then London to meet a specialist, doctors diagnosed pneumonia. Today he and fellow protesters were due to be evicted from their makeshift home.

Hampshire County Council, which owns the land, and Winchester City Council, which operates the 428-space park-and-ride facility, now have a possession order for the site. Although it is now in use, the protesters are still occupying land earmarked for a main entrance between an existing park-and-ride and the new one and vehicles are having to use a temporary entrance.

Council chiefs are today expected to make an application for an eviction order. Protesters have been living in 'bender' tents made from hazel poles and tarpaulins lined with blankets.

Arthur Pendragon, 49, will obviously miss any eviction action, but he insisted from his hospital bed: "This is not the end. It will not be over until the new park-and-ride is restored to meadow and the local county and national politicians are seen to honour their word."

The park and ride facility has been built on land which was turned into a meadow when the old A33 was torn up and replaced as the main route towards Southampton and Bournemouth by the M3.

"This meadow was promised to the people of Winchester."

The protest's legal observer Kay Dickinson said: "It must be one of the smallest protests anywhere.

"But there are still protesters there all the time and they are totally dedicated to protecting the environment."