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Climate Camp plan 365-day "blockade"

Organisers of Camp for Climate action are looking at staging a year long blockade at Kingsnorth.

The protest will begin if the government gives E.ON's plan for a new coal fired power station at Hoo the green light.

Eco-campaigners are considering a repeat of a year of protest at the Trident base at Faslane, Scotland.

Groups of protestors from across the UK organised themselves into a rotation system to allow a 365 day blockade of the nuclear base.

They took it in turns to ensure a one year continuous peaceful blockade from 1st October 2006, ending with a Big Blockade on October 1 2007.

The model will be discussed further when Camp for Climate Action next meet in Manchester on September 27 and 28.

Camper Jess Glynn, 33, said: "We wouldn't set up another permanent camp as we have just seen but we are looking into a system of rolling direct action.

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"If the government say yes to Kingsnorth then we would also target the companies supplying the materials for its construction so direct action would also be seen in other parts of the country."

"The focus would of course be Kingsnorth itself and Faslane 365, is a model that has been talked about.

"We will decide more details when we next all meet. It may take some time to agree the finer details, as we believe in consensus and a majority decision, but this idea is a strong contender."

"We want to keep the growing local support we have gathered on side, as it really has been fantastic and we wouldn't want to lose their support.

"We would therefore invite them and anyone else also concerned about the way we are heading to come along to Septembers national meeting."

"We will disrupt the building of another coal fired power station even if it means blockading bulldozers and being at the Hoo site in one shape or form for a year or perhaps even longer."

Mel Evans, another member of the Climate Camp team said future protests were likely to have a wide number of targets.

She said: Rolling blockade isn't actually the best way to describe what the camp will

do next.

"The idea is to use a variety of means - not just blockading to stop E.ON pursuing a project that would emit at least six million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

"It's a blockade of policies, decisions, of bad ideas - which is weighted on [the government's] threat to go ahead with this internationally criticised project.

"Some of this action will be at Kingsnorth, but much will probably also focus on the project's backers elsewhere, such as E.ON's HQs in Coventry and Germany, responsible government ministries and E.ON's bankers the Royal Bank of Scotland.

"It is vital to us that we work with the local community to minimise disruption to local residents.

"To this end we are pursuing every legal channel to challenge the police's behaviour - particularly that which impacted on local residents such as the police arbitrarily stopping

vehicles coming onto the camp site to minimise the chances of that appening again.

"We are also inviting local residents to feed back their experiences of the camp to us at feedback@climatecamp.org.uk.

"We would like to ask the residents of Hoo if they would host us for a Residents' Meeting in early September to discuss the Climate Camp and all associated issues and responses."

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