9 October 2007The ScotsmanJohn Innes
CAMPAIGNERS staged a protest at a power plant which could be the site of Britain's first new coal-fired station for 20 years.
The 26 Greenpeace activists were calling for Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to reject plans for the site in Kent, and aim to take it off the National Grid.
Their actions coincided with a blockade of the entrance to the domestic terminal at Manchester Airport yesterday morning.
Power firm E.ON UK said protesters had been at the gates of the power station, near Rochester, with some inside, but insisted it was still operational. One woman was arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
Six activists climbed a 200-metre chimney at around 5am. Another 20 activists chained themselves to the station's conveyor belt.
Protester Ben Stewart, 33, scaled a chimney at the site. He said: "We are facing a climate-change emergency and we have not got the time to sit around. We have to force the issue.
"We want to have a planet we can live in and bring up children in. This will be difficult if countries like Britain build new coal-fired power stations."
Meanwhile, seven campaigners from the group Manchester Plane Stupid handcuffed themselves in a line in Terminal 3 at about 7:30am.
Initially they stopped passengers going through to the departure lounge, but an emergency exit was opened and at 9am the blockade was not causing any queues. The protest ended at 10am, and the police did not take any action.
One of the seven protesters was Vanessa Hall, a Green Party member of Manchester City Council, which owns the airport. She attacked the authority for having contradictory policies.
"We have this whole Manchester Green City, aspiring to be a green city, but it is nonsense when you're expanding an airport."
A spokesman for the airport said the campaigners had mis-timed their protest: "This terminal is at its busiest from 5am to 7am. They arrived at 7:30am, so they missed the main peak."
