Skip to content or view screen version

blackwood camp legal update

usual suspect | 12.02.2004 00:12

temporary repreive for trees due to dormice but for how long
legal status of camp still in dispute

Blackwood Legal update

First the good news…
Due to the discovery of dormice en route we have won a battle if not the war (yet!). Today, on the advice of CCW, the Welsh Assembly made Costain stop all work on site pending an (obviously, inevitably successful) application for the granting of a license to move the dormice. Whether the Assembly grant this license, or not, will obviously be a political, not an environmental, decision.
As 1000 meters of dormice habitat has already been trashed, criminal proceedings are in the process of being started against whoever signed the order to start work.
The road is also under review at the European Commission – the Enforcement and Implementation of the law for conservation section- over the bat habitats en route. Now the dormice habitat information has been added to this review.
OK- now the legal status of the camp…APPARENTLY (2nd hand info) Costain/ Caerphilly council have used this “Harry Potter” ruling to get an injunction against un- named defendants meaning that a penal warrant, not a bench warrant, has been issued (??) -people will have to be taken back to court as individuals and possibly sued if they trespass on Costain land. However, the camp has permission to be on (tree-d) land which is due to be trashed, but isn’t owned by Costain. This land adjoins Costain’s land. It’s complicated, but we are still there, safe-ish, for now, protecting the trees. There are walkways on both bits of the site.
The camp may still be illegally evicted at any time
The license to move the dormice is likely to be granted, meaning work could start again in the very near future.
Like at Twyford, civil proceedings could be taken out against people who break the “Harry Potter” injunction and refuse to leave, or trespass on, Costain-owned land
NOW IS THE TIME TO GET HERE AND CONSOLIDATE RESOURCES AND SHOW WE MEAN BUSINESS. THIS IS LIKELY TO BE A TEMPORARAY REPRIEVE SO LETS MAKE THE MOST OF IT. DIRECT ACTION AND COMMITTED LOCAL SUPPORT IS WORKING!
We do not want Nine Ladies or Sherwood to lose much needed activists as a result of people coming to Blackwood, but fucks sake there are enough of us to cover all sites. Blackwood is winnable!!!!!!!!!!!!



usual suspect