road protests 1997   |   road protests (current)   |   movement links

Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 14:34:56 +0100
From: Road Alert!
To: roadalert@gn.apc.org
Subject: NEWS

Protest at Manchester - update not very up to date, sorry...

Hi just a quick update - midnight Wednesday 28th..
Wild Garlic now completely cleared. Slow work going on at Sir Cliff Richard with only about six taken out of trees so far. The tunnels are proving to be a big problem for bailiffs. Woman in noose (full story below) is being given food and oxygen and in stark contrast to Zion Tree eviction Tuesday am is apparently being treated well. Flywood still untouched and River Rats still very much there!

Other news from over the weekend. A camp was set up outside the fenced off main route (of the runway) for "visitors" and evacuees to gather.

On Saturday evening it was still easy to get into the protest camps by walking up the river (only knee deep) It is outside the jurisdiction of the Airport. Also security aren't paid enough to chase people through the water. Four rubber dinghies were "sailed" up the river that night with supplies for those inside.

John Vidal - (environmental writer for the Guardian) is himself holed up in the tunnel and sending out articles from behind the third door. Protestors say it is virtually impossible to evict from some of the tunnels. Special scaffolding will have to be erected to get people out of the trees as they can't use "cherry pickers" on the steep muddy ground.

**********************************************************************

> NFL3072 4 HHH 211 PA
> 1 ENVIRONMENT Runway Substitute
> NOOSE PROTESTER HALTS RUNWAY BAILIFFS
> By Briony Warden, PA News
>
> A tunneller with a noose around her neck has halted bailiffs trying to
> clear the site of Manchester's proposed second runway.
> The young woman, who has attached a rope around her neck to the
> entrance of a tunnel, would be hanged instantly if the trap door were
> opened, the Under Sheriff of Cheshire said.
> The protester, one of four holed up in a tunnel at the Sir Cliff
> Richard OBE Vegan Revolution Camp, has also attached herself to
> reinforced concrete in a bid to beat the bailiffs.
> The home-made gallows made opening the trap door to the tunnel
> "virtually impossible" Under Sheriff Randal Hibbert said.
> Mr Hibbert, leading the operation to evict the eco warriors from the
> Manchester Airport owned site in Cheshire's Bollin Valley, said:
> "We are thinking of ways and means to get her out."
> He told a press briefing he planned to investigate claims made
> yesterday that protesters had embedded butane gas cylinders into
> concrete "lock-ons" which could explode, injuring bailiffs and tunnellers.
> The Under Sheriff, who refused to speculate on the so-called "booby traps"
> around the camps said to include glass, barbed wire and nails, but
> planned to report his findings this afternoon.
> mf
>
> 271240 MAY 97
>
> 2 ENVIRONMENT Runway Substitute
>
> The Cliff Richard camp, where up to 30 protesters are defying climbing
> specialists in seven tree houses 50-60ft above the ground, presented the
> most difficult obstacles so far, Mr Hibbert said.
> Two camps, Ziontree and Wild Garlic, were cleared completely over the
> Bank Holiday weekend but the Cliff Richard camp's two tunnels were
> "going to prove more difficult", he added.
> Bailiffs were communicating with the tunnellers, who were being supplied
> with compressed air at the moment to prevent them from suffocating.
> The clearing of the Cliff Richard camp began at 8am today and by mid
> morning nine protesters had been arrested, Mr Hibbert said.
> Four campers were evicted by bailiffs on the ground and a total of five
> had been cleared from the trees, he said.
> Bailiffs had now cleared three of the disputed site's six permanent
> camps but determined protesters, incarcerated in ever deeper tunnels
> were making the going increasingly difficult.
> mfl
>
> 271242 MAY 97
>
> 3 ENVIRONMENT Runway Substitute
>
> spokesman for the protesters said the woman had secured herself at
> the tunnel entrance early this morning as bailiffs began their eviction
> of the camp.
> "Both her arms and her feet are locked on to a concrete block and she
> has a noose around her neck", he said.
> The woman had volunteered to put herself in this position "to stop the
> bailiffs entering the tunnel and to delay them as long as possible".
> A diagram showing the woman's position and the noose was pasted on the
> outside of the door to the tunnel and the woman was not expected to be
> in any immediate danger, the spokesman said.
> mfl
>
> 271257 MAY 97


road protests 1997   |   road protests (current)   |   movement links