Lush became an active environmentalist while studying politics at Bristol University and joined the 'Dongas' protest camp at Twyford Down against the construction of one the road schemes, a new section of the M3 motorway being built close to where she grew up in 1992. This was one of many schemes outlined in the Roads for Prosperity white paper which Margaret Thatcher described as 'the largest road building programme since the Romans. Lush successfully challenged the UK Government's Breach of the Peace legislation at the European Court of Human Rights in 1998.