The M77 -- now Corkerhill residents are to claim compensation. The road that leads to court

direction.

FROM close up the M77 extension linking the heart of Glasgow with the

main Ayr road looks a bit like a scar, raised up on steep embankments of

earth. Diggers bite at top soil, levelling the earth. Nearly-completed

bridge supports stand either side of the White Cart Water meandering

through the Pollok Estate. By Haggs Castle, to the north, work is under

way on a junction connecting the extension to the existing M77 segment.

To the south, at one end of the Barrhead Road, youthful security guards

loiter by the steel fence that separates the motorway site from the road

protesters' camp, the Pollok Free State.

It is almost five months since hundreds of police and security guards

launched a dawn raid on the protesters living among the trees that

fringe Pollok Park. By the end of a tense March day 350 trees had been

felled, minor scuffles subdued, and a handful of protesters, including

Pollok's Militant councillor Tommy Sheridan, were arrested. The

residents of the nearby housing estates of Corkerhill and Pollok, who

had come to lend their support, drifted home.

With the trees down and the confrontation over the media moved on,

leaving images of a doomed roads protest which failed to enlist the

support of the well-organised middle-class car-driving lobby, so

instrumental in halting the Newby by-pass in England and, crucially,

those commuting from Ayr to Glasgow.

Work on the extension continues to schedule and contractor Wimpey says

it is confident of meeting thecompletion deadline of late next year.

But if the rather disparate groups of anti-motorway protesters have

fallen silent, they have not disappeared. The tree people of the Pollok

Free State are staying put. Across the #53m motorway, designed to ease

traffic flowing through the South Side of Glasgow, cut accidents, and

improve the economic prospects of Ayrshire, the residents of the

Corkerhill estate are turning their attention to the courts in a bid to

claim compensation for noise and health problems associated with the

motorway.

Beside the Barrhead road a new rash of signs splashed with stark

messages proclaim to motorists they are driving past ''Asthma

Junction''.

Over the past few months the tree camp has evolved into more of a

symbolic presence than the nerve centre of eco-warriors preparing to

take any direct action. Now, according to the camp's key activist, Colin

Macleod, there are around 12 residents. He himself has a home in Govan,

where his wife has just had a baby, but he is usually around.

By the protesters' own admission they are not doing much in the way of

protesting save for slipping over the wire fence every now and then to

''have a look at the machinery''.

Like many of the tree people who came in for criticism during the

high-profile confrontation with Wimpey, Dave Dragometti is unemployed

and English. He came to the camp six months ago, motivated, he says, by

a feeling of guilt about his lack of involvement in protests over the

M11 near his former home in North London. The 27-year-old left his

possessions with his mother and headed north to live in a tent.

Now he's thinking of moving on once he has finished building the 10ft

wire man spread-eagled under a tree. He says he might go to southern

Poland to a commune he's heard about called Ecotopia. He thinks he has

got on well with local residents but concedes there has occasionally

been a bit of friction.

Dave Featherstone, a 20-year-old Cambridge University student, has

been in Pollok for three weeks. Gesturing wildly he talks earnestly

about direct action. Glaswegians John and Willie are less effervescent

and reluctant to give surnames. Their talk is about a moral victory.

They have, they say, been successful in instilling a concern for the

environment among those living close to the motorway path.

Certainly Betty Campbell, a Corkerhill resident for 22 years, can see

the motorway. It runs past her back garden and she says she cannot

escape the noise of the diggers drifting over the sound barriers which

should screen out the noise of the traffic when the road is opened.

Most days she and the flamboyant figure of 72-year-old community

councillor Walter Morrison sit outside the estate's community centre

sandwiched in the middle of a row of steel-shuttered shops beside a

wooden display board smothered in posters and slogans. Inside the centre

hang anti-motorway banners. For those who drop in Mr Morrison is keen,

with the aid of overhead slides, to rattle through his version of the

history of the motorway.

Conceding that the Corkerhill residents have little chance of stopping

a motorway approved by a public inquiry seven years ago, he says the

fight now centres on claiming compensation.

Around 500 people on an estate with 580 residents have signed a

petition supporting such action. Last week Mr Morrison organised a

meeting attended by around 100 people at which a number of residents

agreed to pursue individual claims with the help of a lawyer, Liz

Loughlan, hired by the campaign organisation, Glasgow For People.

''People round here aren't the sort to lie in front of bulldozers,

they are conventional. But the Corkerhill community has been squeezed in

by the motorway and cut off from the park -- it is a form of social

apartheid. In no way has the fire died down in the bellies of those who

don't want this motorway.''

According to the organisation's campaigns officer, Ian Cowan, work on

the site begins at 7am and finishes at 9pm. ''Not one house has had any

noise insulation put in. The sense of betrayal in places like

Corkerhill, Darnley and Arden is growing daily. We are in touch with

lawyers specialising in compensation and individuals are seeking legal

advice on how to claim damages, not only for the losses they are

suffering now but for all the losses they will suffer when the road is

completed.''

Depending on funds there are also plans to appeal to the European

courts over the environmental impact of the motorway. In a separate move

Friends of the Earth Scotland also plans to challenge the road in Europe

on the grounds that a ''proper'' environmental assessment was not

carried out by the council.

But Wimpey says the campaigners on both sides of the ribbon of mud

that will in time transport 53,000 cars every day have not caused any

problems. The company would only comment: ''Security levels have been

maintained at a reasonable level for this type of project and there have

been no recent acts of vandalism at the construction area.''

A new rash of signs proclaim to motorists they are driving past

'Asthma Junction'

IT IS A FORM

OF SOCIAL

APARTHEID

According to Wimpey, the protesters have not caused any problems and

work on the M77 extension continues on schedule for completion late next

year. Above, looking south, is the section bisecting the Darnley Road.

To the north, by Haggs Castle, below, work is under way on a junction

connecting the extension to the existing M77 segment. The Corkerhill

community claims it has been squeezed in by the motorway and cut off

from the park and a number of residents are reported to be pursuing

individual claims with the help of a lawyer, Liz Loughlan, hired by the

campaign organisation, Glasgow For People. Pictures: PHIL RIDER