This event was timed to coincide with the start of the peat-cutting season, which can only begin when the peat has dried out enough.
All morning Leeds & Sheffield Friends of the Earth and others collected messages from the people of Thorne and the surrounding area, on cards, placards and balloons. They got a really good response from the local population who are well aware of the damage being done to their moors. At the same time activists from the north were taken on guided tours of the site and learnt as much as they could about the peat-cutting process.
After lunch everyone gathered at a friendly pub and then set off in a procession to the peat works. Some of the (smaller) messages collected during the morning were handed in to a poker-faced security guard and then around 50 people strolled into the processing plant, past him and the four or five bumbling police officers. They had a good look round the vast site and inside lots of buildings, they conga’d through the piles of stacked up compost bags and ceilidhed alongside the railway line.
There were no arrests as we danced out of the site and back to the pub. After a lovely day we decided to have a bigger, better and longer trespass of the site and the moors on Tuesday 25th June, with some camping available the night before — more details available from Leeds EF!
Other actions will of course be going on all the time!