The site is across the river from the town of Blackwood /Coed Duon. To the North there is a Bridge accessed by a very narrow road which ought to be widened before any serious work starts as any breakdown there causes chaos in short order. There appear to be many English drivers using this road who are quite unable to cope with its narrowness. It is virtually impossible to park properly. The work of the contractors can be seen from this road. the contractor employee met was not forthcoming and unwilling to direct a reporter to the protest camp. He was very buddy buddy with an organisation driving a 4WD Yuppy Wagon proclaiming itself "Partneship for action against Wildlife Crime" which sounds like the title of a sold out FOE - Capitalist front to me.

The phone box near where that road joins the main road going North from Blackwood should be repaired sooon. It rejects over 90% of the 20p put in. So proper contact from there can be very difficult. Traffic noise makes the phone almost unusable and it is in any case very faint.

Branching off that narrow road brings one to a Comprehensive School, and dowhill from there gets to the track that is being cleared. One look over the edge confirms the fears of the Loco drivers who used to hate driving along that bit of rail as they could feel the track move under heavily laden coal trains. Presumably Costain's engineers have done a proper analysis of the weakening of the ground from old workings, and consider that to be a benefit because it drains out the water in the ground. We are not that far from Aberfan here so the Councillors will all be highly skilled in coming to the correct decision about that sort of problem.

A Landslip blocking the river will make a nice little pond, a natural dam like that would be unlikely to collapse suddenly in the way man made constructions do so there should be no wall of water causing a catastrophic flood further down. And presumably Costain are well insured against such risks. Of course if the Stock Market collapses again they may find themselves working without insurance cover.

Tree roots may be the main support holding up the land, and it is an interesting speculation whether the trees might grow enough weight to pull the ground downhill from under the proposed road. Or if salt from the road could kill the trees and so destroy the root structures that keep everything up. It would be very interesting to see the engineer's analysis of that.

We have here a very strong inflationary pressure as the Moneymasters are quite incompetent and have no other way to maintain the economy than destroying the money savings of the prudent. Get into debt, inflation will wipe it out for you! That is the cause of Hitler being put in power.

To the South there is another bridge, and heading up river from there along the road there is a gate and a footpath which goes in the direction of the camp.

Presumably some of the Councillors are Grandsons of those old train drivers and know what neurotic idiots they were, imagining feeling the track move through fear induced by looking over the big drop as they steamed along.

Will they put an access at the bottom to recover dumped cars from the river? Or are the tearaways in those more eastern valleys just not in the same class of car thieves as the Swansea' boys' were? ( I think he grew old enough to be locked up. )

Blackwood is most easily found coming down the A4048 from the A465. Otherwise consult a good map to approach from the South.

Have just returned from site which has been productive for defense of area, another S6 set up. Quiet on the COSTAIN front only a couple of walkbys by security over weekend. THey have brought in tree crusher and bribing a local farmre with new drive and stuff to store cherrry picker for them. ITV, BBC and sky news covering story. Evidence gathering team onsite today.

The days work on monday was stopped at 8am within half an hour by protesters stopping contracters vehicles entering site. Chainsaw gang tried to start but were stopped by campaigners gettiin the way , police turned up told Costain that they would not take action without court orders. Later on two people got into compound and some pushing occured locally hired Labour/security there does not seem to be dedicated security on site yet.Local people who have campaigned are giving us as much support as they can.
S6 Site now has walkways and barricades setup.
MORE PEOPLE WHO CARE ARE NEEDED !

Got back last night, the weekend and monday were unbelievable. Local support fantastic, from schoolkids from local estate comprehensive to retired locals and houseowner to ppl coming daily from Pontypool who have been learning tree skills and downloading RoadRaging for their own local protest. We've started walkwaying around the main camp area and passing on climbing skills and tat, but the main need is for bodies on site, overnight, and along the route during the day. Monday we blockaded the security and the digger compound successfully, so successfully that the security stayed put in one spot while the three chainsaw vans kept mobile. WE stopped them four or five times, but they are v mobile, they will stop work on being approached so there need to be three (at least) groups of people able to cover all areas of the route. This means bikes are desperately needed on site. Walkie-talkies should be there today for co-ordination.

THIS SITE/ACTION IS INSPIRING AND DESERVES MORE SUPPORT FROM SORTED CAMPAIGNERS AND FIRST-TIMERS ALIKE. NOTHING LIKE STOPPING A CHAINSAW TO EMPOWER YOU. GET DOWN THERE AND THIS ROAD WILL BE SERIOUSLY BOGGED AND TREES SAVED. EVEN THOSE ON EVICTION ALERT SHOULD CONSIDER GETTING DOWN THERE. THIS MEANS YOU!!!

CALL FOR DAY OF ACTION MONDAY 16TH FEB COME FOR THE WEEKEND AND STAY FOR MONDAY

Just got back god this is really like the old days. so easy to do stuff here come ON! i know other sites need help too but so do we....and work is happening here NOW chainsaws here NOW machinery arriving NOW....the woods needless to say are massive ancient and beautiful

Masses done over the weekend some walkways up more section 6'd areas including one right in the middle of the main access route in hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camp getting consolidated. yoghurt being woven. police FIT team up filming sunday. So easy to stop work with just a handful of people who know what they are doing.stopped all work completely today we are currently running rings around Costain. if we keep on the offensive like this then its all to play for.

Unbelievable local support never seen anything like it ever. Dormice found on route this strengthens case for european court appeal which is currently going through (yes the f-ers are felling despite the decision not being in yet)

We currently have the tactical advantage but not for long unless numbers pick up. Ring camp mobile for update

07708 420446
ps we urgently need money and climbing tat and oh yeah did i mention people?

costain have now got the licence to carry on working around the Dormice.

They've already destroyed some of that area over the last week or so and are currently shredding everything they've cut down, destroying all evidence of any nests etc.

They're not allowed to move the Dormice till April but the licence allows them work around them.
How do they know exactly where all the nests are if the Dormice are hibernating? How many are they going to kill?

The heavy machinery for cutting down the big trees is now out and ready to go. There's nothing to stop them now except people.

There are currently just 2 people in each camp and they desperately need more people ASAP to stop this destruction!

Even if you can't stay overnight, being there during working hours will help no end.

It's desperate now. Please come, they can't stop this with the small numbers they've got there now, with more people we can win this.
Thank you