Next Aldermaston Blockade Monday 15th January

**Block the Builders return to Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry as Tri­dent
» debate heats up**
>
> NEXT BLOCKADE MONDAY 15TH JANUARY. FOR DETAILS OF BLOCKADE AND ARRANGEMENTS
> PLEASE VISIT http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/Blockades.php

**Block the Builders return to Britain’s nuclear bomb fac­to­ry as Tri­dent
» debate heats up**
>
> NEXT BLOCKADE MONDAY 15TH JANUARY. FOR DETAILS OF BLOCKADE AND ARRANGEMENTS
> PLEASE VISIT http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/Blockades.php
>
» ———————-
»
» In Decem­ber 2006 the gov­ern­ment pub­lished a White Paper in which it
» con­firmed its inten­tion to replace the Tri­dent sub­ma­rine fleet and
» out­lined pro­pos­als for replac­ing the cur­rent Tri­dent D5 mis­siles. The
» par­lia­men­tary debate on these aspects of Tri­dent replace­ment is expect­ed
» to take place in March.
»
» How­ev­er, the White Paper deferred the issue of what nuclear war­head the
» mis­siles would car­ry. Tony Blair’s intro­duc­to­ry text stat­ed that a
» deci­sion on war­head replace­ment could be tak­en in the next par­lia­ment.
»
» ———————-
» BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE BOMB
» ———————-
»
» Mean­while, mas­sive work to upgrade AWE Alder­mas­ton con­tin­ues with­out
» pause. A recent indus­try report sug­gest­ed that con­struc­tion firms are
» expect­ing £12bn to be spent on the nuclear war­head fac­to­ry over the next
» 12 years [2]. A curi­ous sit­u­a­tion if no deci­sion has been made on a future
» war­head.
»
» Block the Builders will con­tin­ue their reg­u­lar month­ly obstruc­tion of
» con­struc­tion traf­fic enter­ing the base. A spokesper­son said “We con­tin­ue
» to call for a halt to build­ing work at AWE. This mas­sive devel­op­ment
» project com­plete­ly under­mines any faith in the so-called ‘debate’.”
»
» ———————-
» WIDESPREAD CONDEMNATION
» ———————-
» Since the pub­li­ca­tion of the gov­ern­men­t’s White Paper there has been
» wide­spread oppo­si­tion, to both the replace­ment pro­pos­als and the process
» of deci­sion-mak­ing. Con­cerns have been expressed by a very broad range of
» indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions; par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from all sides of the
» House have ques­tioned the gov­ern­ment, and faith lead­ers, trade union­ists
» and the anti-nuclear move­ment have con­demned both the pol­i­cy impli­ca­tions
» and the finan­cial cost.
»
» ———————-
» LOCAL NEWS
» ———————-
» Local media may be inter­est­ed to note that, despite pre­vi­ous­ly being
» gift­ed mon­ey by AWE just days before a 2005 plan­ning meet­ing [3], the
» local parish coun­cil is object­ing to one of the base’s cur­rent plan­ning
» appli­ca­tions and a spe­cial plan­ning meet­ing will be held on 22 Jan­u­ary in
» New­bury [4]
»
» ———————-
» ABOUT BLOCK THE BUILDERS
» ———————-
» Formed in 2004, Block the Builders is a non­vi­o­lent direct action group
» which has
» been tak­ing prac­ti­cal action to slow con­struc­tion work AWE Alder­mas­ton and
» at
» the sites of com­pa­nies with con­struc­tion con­tracts with AWE.
» This has tak­en the form of a month­ly, pub­licly-announced block­ade of AWE
» Alder­mas­ton, com­bined with unan­nounced actions at AWE and con­trac­tor
» sites, and
» events in con­junc­tion with oth­er groups such as the recent Greenpeace/BtB
» mass
» weapons inspec­tion (27/11/06). The Decem­ber 2006 block­ade saw roads around
» the site closed for two hours and sev­en peo­ple arrest­ed.
»
» For reports of pre­vi­ous block­ades, see http://www.aldermaston.net/news
»
» ———————-
» NOTES
» ———————-
» [1] White Paper: http://tinyurl.com/ye878z
» [2] Indus­try report:
» http://www.costain.com/externaldocs/finance/Nuclear.pdf
» page 17 (pre­vi­ous pages are very good for explain­ing the gen­er­al nuclear
» sec­tor con­tracts, whose bid­ding etc) but page 17 says “AWE Frame­work
» agree­ment £4m in 2006. Fore­cast £8m in 2007. Posi­tioned for con­tract­ing on
» AWE’s invest­ment pro­gramme £12bn over next 12 years”
» [3] Min­utes of the Parish Coun­cil meet­ing held on 8th Novem­ber 2005
» No mem­bers of the pub­lic were present.
» 94 Parish Plan progress report · The Parish Plan was tabled. It was agreed
» that
» Clerk will write to Ken Ray con­grat­u­lat­ing him and the steer­ing group on
» the
» excel­lent work they have car­ried out. A dona­tion of £1500 had been
» received
» from AWE and it was agreed that the Clerk would write express­ing the
» thanks of
» the Parish Coun­cil. [orig­i­nal at:
» http://www.aldermaston.co.uk/2005/dec05/pc_minutes11.05.doc]
» [4] Spe­cial meet­ing of the East­ern Area Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. The only item
» for deter­mi­na­tion will be 06/2326/comind (AWE office accom­mo­da­tion
» appli­ca­tion).
» This will start at 6.30pm and be held in the Coun­cil Cham­ber, Mar­ket
» Street, New­bury.
»
» Block the Builders: http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk
»