* * * IMPORTANT UPDATE * * *
15-08-2010 20:55 CLIMATE CAMP CYMRU UP AND RUNNING AGAIN. Having been evicted by South Wales police from a site near Glyn-Neath (see below), Climate Camp Cymru is now established on a new site on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea.
If you fancy joining the camp, give site a call on 07040909147 and they’ll give you directions and a warm welcome.
http://climatecampcymru.org/
CLIMATE CAMP CYMRU EVICTED
Climate Camp Cymru, which was due to continue until Tuesday 17th August at Glyn-Neath in South Wales, was evicted by the police on its second day (Saturday 14th) over alleged complaints about possible damage to the site chosen by the campers, a Roman Hill Fort.
SPURIOUS GROUNDS FOR EVICTION
Having stood by uselessly for years while the beautiful landscape of the Welsh Valleys has been systematically trashed by opencast mining companies, South Wales Police seem to have suddenly developed a touching concern for the environment, moving in en masse with riot vans and on horseback to evict the campers on these spurious grounds. While Climate Campers have a deserved reputation for clearing up after themselves and are unlikely to have done more damage than stick a few tent pegs in the sacred soil, opencast mining companies destroy whole mountains | 1 | 2 | and important wildlife habitats without the cops appearing to notice or care.
We are still awaiting first-hand reports from campers, but Climate Camp Cymru has issued a press release which states that Cadw, the government body responsible for the site and whose aims, incidentally, are ‘to protect and sustain, encourage community engagement in and improve access to the historic environment of Wales’, had ‘visited the site and accepted that the camp could go ahead with police monitoring.’ It seems likely that the cops interpreted this to mean they could stop the camp whenever they wanted. A spokesperson for the camp said: ‘This just goes to show the priorities of the current government, who are more interested in protecting climate criminals like Celtic Energy and in repressing those taking action on climate change, than on actually tackling the climate crisis themselves.’