On Saturday the 25th August during the Northern Green Gathering a Mass Trespass was planned.
About 70 people left the gathering and met up with a few people from The Ramblers and other local conservation groups. There was a very low police presence, which was generally ignored and the majority of people trespassed onto the moor. A ‘Bog off Scotts’ banner was held up for photos.
Then people spotting dust in the distance decided to go and stop work. The police refused to go any further, citing Health & Safety Regulations. People ran towards where the cutting was taking place at which point the work stopped and the workers desperately tried to move the machinery away before people could stop them. A train trying to speed up to escape from a group chasing it, went too fast and derailed itself, and other machinery was stopped and sat on, preventing it from going elsewhere to work. Another train was found and rocked off its rails. Another group of people meantime had been making themselves busy, destroying the plastic used to keep the cut peat dry whilst it’s stockpiled for winter, they also managed to block two of the largest and most important drainage ditches causing Scotts to give up on that area for the rest of the season. A digger was tinkered with and almost jump started, but unfortunately the police helicopter arrived with most unfortunate timing so it was just trashed instead. It is still there and seems to have been abandoned.
This time the police, who were unprepared and in very small numbers, didn’t even bother with trying to take details and every one left after a few hours and headed back to the gathering.