EVICTION STARTED early this morning at Dalkeith Park (Scotland) Protest Sites — can still get down there & help

DALKEITH COUNTRY PARK- ANTI A68 BYPASS PROTEST CAMPAIGN
PRESS STATEMENT- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 16 JANUARY 2006

Evic­tion of the four protest sites in Dalkei­th Coun­try Park against the con­struc­tion of the A68 Bypass and the destruc­tion of the Riv­er Esk wildlife cor­ri­dor began this morn­ing.

At around 4.30 a.m. this morn­ing evic­tion of the protest sites in Dalkei­th Coun­try Park began. Police bailiffs raid­ed one of the sites and have estab­lished a secu­ri­ty cor­don around it. Pro­tes­tors remain in the trees deter­mined to resist evic­tion and the cut­ting of the trees in this part of the Riv­er Esk wildlife cor­ri­dor.

Police are now mobil­is­ing climbers and machin­ery to remove those in the trees. How­ev­er, pro­tes­tors have moved high into the trees to com­pli­cate the evic­tion process. They are filled with a pas­sion­ate desire to pro­tect these wood­lands against what is viewed as sense­less and inap­pro­pri­ate destruc­tion of a sig­nif­i­cant eco­log­i­cal habi­tat.

The first of the four protest sites at Dalkei­th Coun­try Park was estab­lished on the 31 Octo­ber 2005 in regards to infor­ma­tion that tree felling for the A68 bypass was to pro­ceed imme­di­ate­ly. Since that time, all areas in around the park where tree felling is nec­es­sary for the pro­posed bypass have seen the estab­lish­ment of protest sites to defend against this large-scale habi­tat destruc­tion. The num­ber of peo­ple involved in protest­ing the rout­ing of the A68 Bypass through the coun­try park has increased sig­nif­i­cant­ly since the estab­lish­ment of the first protest site and includes strong sup­port from many peo­ple local to the Dalkei­th area.

Cam­paign­ers are adamant that before con­struc­tion on the A68 bypass con­tin­ues, a new Pub­lic Inquiry needs to occur. Since plan­ning per­mis­sion was grant­ed for the bypass in 1993, all infor­ma­tion regard­ing the need for its con­struc­tion is dat­ed from 1992 or ear­li­er. A prop­er Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment has nev­er been com­plet­ed, the last Pub­lic Inquiry was in 1992, and the need for this bypass has not prop­er­ly been reassessed since major changes to the trans­port infra­struc­ture of the area (the dualling of the A1, the build­ing of the A7 Dalkei­th bypass, and the poten­tial reopen­ing of the Bor­ders Rail Link). In 1999, the Strate­gic Road Review stat­ed that the A68 North­ern bypass should be held in abeyance until the com­ple­tion of the Mul­ti-Modal Trans­port study (to be com­plet­ed in 2006) which would con­sid­er the need for the bypass with regards to these change.

10:30am
The police and bailiffs are work­ing on the Top Site. The sites at Bot­tom and Mid­dle still have every­one in place and are acces­si­ble. Please get along and sup­port if you can (and while you can).

2pm
The top site has been fenced off, and two peo­ple arrest­ed there so far, the oth­er two are freely access­able for now but it is said may be evict­ed Tues­day and Wednes­day.
At least one per­son is still to be tak­en from trees and at least one from a tun­nel, at top site.
Climbers are remov­ing struc­ture from trees.
There is a Scot­tish Exec­u­tive Press Offi­cer and a Police Press Offi­cer on site.

Update — Mon­day after­noon
Last info I have, they are still work­ing on top site. They have fenced in mid­dle site. Bot­tom site was still open and peo­ple there were call­ing for more sup­port. How­ev­er, they said that baliffs were on the way to bot­tom site to fence it off too.
How­ev­er, those going out have been stopped by police before reach­ing the park and are than escort­ed to the ‘view­ing area’ close to top site. Police have blocked peo­ple from enter­ing the park and from going to either bot­tom or mid­dle site.
Vans have been leav­ing reg­u­lar­ly from the For­est Cafe to take peo­ple to Dalkei­th. The evic­tion is far from over, and sup­port will still be cru­cial over the fol­low­ing days. Even if you can’t get into one of the sites, being there to view the evic­tion process and show sol­i­dar­i­ty is vital!