SchNEWS Friday 16th February 2007 | Issue 576

HAVEN IT LARGE
PROTEST PRESSURE BUILDS ON 120 MILE GAS PIPELINE THROUGH WALES

Protesters against the National Grid Welsh gas pipeline (see ScHNEWS 569) seized the initiative on Valentine’s day by taking the struggle to the pipeline’s terminal at Milford Haven. Up’n at ‘em by 5am, pipeline activists were at the gates at dawn, and eight people soon occupied a rickety jetty in the harbour - bringing work to a grinding halt - and five more locked on with heavy metal arm tubes at the site entrance, blocking access to the site for several hours.

Heavy handed cops soon arrived on the scene, but it took them many hours to cut every one free and eventually make their thirteen arrests. In the meantime, although they had no qualms in directing cars to mount the verge and pass dangerously close to the lock-blockers, trucks had no chance and a queue of over thirty lorries soon stretched back down the road.

Supporters of those arm-deep in the action were rounded up and held (illegally) on a bus for an hour and a half, before being marched up to the top of the road and ‘encouraged’ to hold a demonstration in a pen, under section 14 of our old friend the Public Order Act. They refused to co-operate but enjoyed being able to tell one copper who arrived late on the scene and asked who the organiser of the demo was, “er, that police officer over there..!”.

The 120-mile project cuts a motorway sized swathe through from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire to Tirley in Gloucestershire - often through ground deemed unsuitable for building houses on, with some living nearby refused even having domestic mains gas - let alone a giant main pipeline close by which even industry experts predict will suffer at least one crack in its lifetime.

Inspired by the initial squatting of the pipeline in November, camps sprung up at Milford Haven, Trebanos and Cilfrew, with locals and activists regularly disrupting work. January saw a number of actions, including at a new location at Alltwen, Pontardawe - where people chained themselves to machinery in order to stop the work carrying on the other side of the valley from the Trebanos camp.

On February 7th, the DTI announced approval for the start of phase II of the environmentally damaging project, across the Brecon Beacons heritage site - which the national park authority called a “huge blow”. But activists’ ain’t gonna let their protest go down the tubes, and are upping their efforts, with one spokesman declaring: “Milford Haven is supposedly a potential target for terrorists. Yet this pipeline will commit us to another thirty years of fuelling a cause of terrorism: Western corporations taking countries’ gas to expand consumption and their profits. This is not just a Welsh problem it is an international one! We all know about the effects of carbon dioxide on climate change - with the UKs main contributor being Gas! Peace, love and f*ck fossil fuels”. To get involved: Trebanos site phone 07733 190958.

Read the rest:  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news576.htm