Here here!
Some of the protestors have been severely criticised here recently, with good reason no doubt, but the protestors as a whole weren't those individuals and the only way to judge them is by results -
It is only fair to record that this may well not have come about through the workings of the statutory protection system alone (including the efforts of the adequately paid statutory guardians of the site and the handsomely rewarded legal profession). It is a victory that has very much been down to an extra factor - the astonishing persistence over the years against all odds and in all weathers of large numbers of protestors (working with very many local people and the National Parks Authority) many of whom have been widely dismissed as "scruffy long-haired layabouts". It is also right to remember the three people who sadly lost their lives at the site during this time.
It is now possible that this extraordinary place will now remain unsullied for another thousand years. If so, posterity will have cause to be grateful to ordinary people, some of whom have been labelled as "hippies who should go out and get a real job". Without them, people in suits with real jobs - those promoting the quarrying ambitions of Stancliffe Stone - might well have secured a different outcome.
http://www.heritageaction.org/?page=theheritagejournal&id=205
