BUILDING work on the new Winchester park-and-ride scheme started and then stopped as the first direct action against the concrete plans got under way.

Up to 30 protesters gathered at the Bar End site as contractors employed by Hampshire County Council began the task of turning meadow into 420 more parking spaces.

But as the contractors began their work, protesters who had spent the night at a makeshift camp next to Garnier Road, broke through the new fencing and climbed on top of the machines with banners reading "Countryside Not Park-and-Ride" and "Green not Greed".

Yesterday should have seen contractors Mildren Construction Ltd begin their six-month project with portable buildings, a compound for construction vehicles and fencing installed on site.

However the protesters efforts did delay work with little or nothing done until the police arrived at the scene shortly before 4.15pm.

HCC say the new park-and-ride facilities are vital to the city, not only to prevent the existing parking facilities being overstretched, but also to rid Winchester of tens of thousands of polluting cars each year.

Much of the anger at the new scheme has been caused because of the history of the site, and not the plans for further park-and-ride facilities.

The site was originally given to the people of Winchester as compensation land for meadowland destroyed when the M3 extension was granted through Twyford Down.

Those protesting yesterday say it is not right that just as the land has finally started to look like meadowland and to have attracted wildlife back to it, the council should rip it up to make way for more concrete and cars.

One of those adamant not to give in to the diggers is 17-year-old Oonagh Dalgleish from Park Road in Winchester.

She said: "The meadows mean so much to the people of Winchester, especially the young, and they are part of the experience of growing up here. This was land that they gave over to the people of Winchester as meadowland after they chopped down Twyford Down to make way for the M3.

"It's the council's job to keep their promise over this land and that includes keeping this site as a place for nature to thrive."

However council leader Ken Thornber, said: "Permission was granted in 1998 after a full public inquiry, and following two judicial reviews and several appeals. The end of this unnecessarily protracted saga is in sight.''