Road protester vows to go to prison

The daughter of one of Britain's most senior clergymen faces jail for leading a protest against a £50 million bypass.

Victoria Harvey, daughter of the Rev Dr Anthony Harvey, a former canon of Westminster Abbey, will appear in court this week after she tied herself to a digger as part of a demonstration by residents. She has been at the forefront of the campaign to stop a five-mile bypass which will link Aylesbury with

Milton Keynes. There are fears it will pave the way for a massive housebuilding programme in the countryside.

It took 22 police officers, including three locksmiths, to remove her and fellow campaigner Rebecca Lush after they attached themselves to a digger with heavy-duty locks last Wednesday. Ms Harvey was then kept in the cells for 10 hours before being charged with aggravated trespass. If found guilty, she could be jailed for a maximum of three months and fined £2,500.

A group of mothers broke into another part of the fivemile route and threw themselves in front of chainsawwielding contractors. Work has now been suspended after police told Buckinghamshire county council they cannot secure the site from protesters.

Despite the threat of jail, Ms Harvey, 36, remains "totally unrepentant" and is prepared to break in when contractors return - in breach of bail conditions which state she is not allowed within 100 metres of the bypass site. "If I have to go to prison then I will," she said. "It is as simple as that."

Ms Harvey, a West End theatre lighting designer, moved to Bedfordshire five years ago.

Her home overlooks meadows that are in the path of the bypass on the Buckinghamshire border. "This is a beautiful spot - it will be a tragedy if it is lost," she said. The Rev Dr Harvey, who retired from his post as subdean of Westminster Abbey in 1999 after 18 years in the post, is known for once telling the Church not to consider extramarital sex a sin. He said of his daughter: "I understand why she has done this - she certainly keeps me radical."