Eco Soundings

John Vidal
Wednesday February 21, 2007
The Guardian

Protection racket

Just what is npower doing in Oxfordshire? Last week, the electricity company that claims to enhance biodiversity sent in the heavies to evict a few people protesting against its plan to fill up beautiful Radley Lakes with fly ash from nearby Didcot power station. Now npower has obtained a high court injunction stopping the local vicar, a retired scientist, Guardian and freelance photographer Adrian Arbib, the Oxford Mail and several others from photographing or videoing anyone on site except protesters and police. Surely this draconian muzzling of the media cannot be because it wants to prevent people seeing the wildlife being frightened away, or the locals complaining of being harassed by the men in balaclavas employed to guard their beauty spot, or the felling of trees now going on? Npower says it does not want to gag the press at all, and is only trying to protect the identities of its staff and contractors. But it now faces a PR disaster. At the weekend, more than 300 locals, led by the mayor, rose against the company and demonstrated. Anyone signed up to npower was urged to switch electricity providers. Perhaps the company will now seek an injunction preventing that, too?