Four arrests during another Coulport nuke base blockade

Posted on July 13, 2017

Trident Ploughshares photo

from Trident Ploughshares

On the morning of July 13, for the second time in three days, Trident Ploughshares campaigners blocked roads into the nuclear warhead store at Coulport on Loch Long as part of a week of peaceful disruption of the UK Trident bases in Scotland.

A group of four protesters blocked the main route to the base by lying in the roadway joined to each other through “lock-on” tubes while a different group, in carnival costume, occupied an alternative access route. Access to the base via these roads was blocked for over two hours. The “lock-on” group was eventually removed by police and the four arrested on a charge of breach of the peace. Those arrested were Esa Noresvuo (26) and Kaj Raninen, both from Helsinki, Peter Anderson (60), from Wales, and Jamie Watson (35), from Glasgow.

Meanwhile Brian Quail (79), a retired teacher from Glasgow, and Angie Zelter (66), a peace and environmental campaigner from Knighton in Wales, are in prison until their trial on 3rd August. Brian is in HMP Low Moss and Angie in HMP Cornton Vale. They were remanded in custody the previous day after refusing special bail conditions which prohibited them from protesting at Faslane or Coulport.

Campaigners have derived encouragement from the adoption on the 7th July by the United Nations of a Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty1, backed by 122 states. Janet Fenton, who attended the Ban Treaty Conference as part of an accredited civil society delegation from Scotland, said:

“The Ban Treaty puts anti-nuclear weapon campaigners on the same side as the majority of the world’s governments so it’s a joy to be here doing what we can to show how the UK is critically out of step with the realities.”

Trident Ploughshares photo

The week of Trident Ploughshares disruptive action against the nuclear weapon bases continues until Sunday.2

For more information visit tridentploughshares.org and icanw.org

1 Last Friday, 7th July, a United Nations Conference adopted a historic Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. 122 states backed the adoption. Along with the other 8 nuclear-armed states the UK boycotted the Conference. The deep division between Scotland and the Westminster government on the issue of nuclear weapons has meant that the UK stance leaves Scotland misrepresented in the process. More at icanw.org and nuclearban.scot

2 Around 50 people from the UK, Finland, Spain, the Canary Islands and France are currently at the Trident Ploughshares camp at Peaton Wood by Loch Long for a week of peaceful disruptive action focused on the nuclear weapon bases at Faslane and Coulport.