Thirteen activists who yesterday halted the construction of the new Basingstoke incinerator have vowed to maintain their occupation, despite the arrest of seven of their colleagues. Today bailiffs climbed onto the roof of the building and used bolt-cutters to remove protesters from the structure and ropes to lower them the hundred feet to the ground. Greenpeace climbers meanwhile are securing themselves inside the plant and others are now chained to the cranes. One hundred volunteers from anti-incineration groups across the country invaded the plant yesterday at dawn.
Mark Strutt of Greenpeace said: "The authorities can try as hard as they like to remove people from this protest, but it won't change the fact that local people support the occupation and don't want to see this incinerator open. If it starts burning household rubbish, it's going emit large quantities of dioxin chemicals that get into the food chain and cause cancer."
The Government recently warned that a third of UK adults and half of Britain's babies and toddlers take in more dioxins than is safe. Greenpeace supports the building of recycling centres as part of a safe and sustainable waste management strategy for Britain, putting people and the environment first.
"The government has so far refused to admit the scale of the plans for more incinerators, claiming only a handful will be built," said Strutt, "but our research shows 43 are in the pipeline. Basingstoke is just one of them. We're going to stay here until we get a commitment that this cancer factory won't be allowed to start operating. If it does, the dangerous chemicals it will pump out will find their way onto our supermarket shelves."
Meanwhile today also saw the launch of a new coalition against the burning of rubbish. The Zero Waste Alliance comprises dozens of groups that work to promote recycling and composting. The Alliance, which includes Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and SERA, will pressure waste producers to act more responsibly while seeking government legislation to reduce packaging. The launch of the Alliance was followed by a mass lobby of MPs and a zero waste picnic on College Green. In Devon today Stephan Tindale, Greenpeace Executive Director, gave the keynote speech to the waste industry's annual conference where he told industry leaders about the dangers of burning rubbish.
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