Surrey residents ready to 'cause a ruckus' to protect Hawthorne Park

Steven Pettigrew admits he has few options left to stop the city from building a road through the park that sits behind his home in Surrey, but he isn't giving up the fight.

"It's looking a little dim right now but as long as the trees are there, there's an opportunity to save them," he said.

"The only thing we have left to do is to go out there and cause a ruckus, stop the trailers and that sort of thing. That's good for a bit of a delay."

The city says putting a two-lane street through Hawthorne Park is necessary to better connect traffic between the Whalley and Guildford neighbourhoods.

City staff say the road is also necessary because the utilities that are buried under 104 Avenue will have to be moved when the new LRT line is built.

Council approved the project last month and crews are expected to start clearing trees sometime next month.

Neighbourhood protest

Community members formed a group called Save Hawthorne Park earlier this year when they learned about the city's proposal.

They gathered thousands of signatures on two separate petitions, organized rallies and showed up in huge numbers at council meetings to voice their opposition to the project.

Tracie Woodhams — who worked alongside Pettigrew to stop the road — says Pettigrew won't be standing by himself in protest when the bulldozers show up.

"I've actually got a couple of friends who've said, 'I have 35 holiday days coming up and I'll book the time off,'" she said.

Political future

Pettigrew says he's debating whether he'll run for council in the upcoming election and will make a decision sometime next year.

"It's a possibility," he said.

"I've got a lot of people that are prompting me to run."