Dalkeith protestors defy eviction, end of Monday update

Pro­tes­tors are still in the trees and in the protest sites at Dalkei­th Coun­try Park. The evic­tion attempt start­ed Mon­day 16th ear­ly morn­ing, but as of 3pm Mon­day after­noon three of the four protest sites remain intact. “We urge sup­port­ers to come and join us,” one of the pro­tes­tors said. “It’s not too late to take a stand against this road mad­ness.”

Pro­tes­tors are oppos­ing the build­ing of the A68 bypass through the Park, just south of Edin­burgh. The author­i­ties said today they expect the evic­tion to take two weeks.
Ear­ly this morn­ing Police bailiffs raid­ed one of the sites, top site, and have estab­lished a secu­ri­ty cor­don around it. As of 3pm at least one pro­tes­tor remained in the trees at Top Site deter­mined to resist evic­tion and the cut­ting of the trees in this part of the Riv­er Esk wildlife cor­ri­dor in Mid­loth­i­an.

Police mobilised climbers and machin­ery to remove those in the trees. Two arrests were report­ed. Pro­tes­tors 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.

As of late Mon­day after­noon mid­dle site and bot­tom site of the protest were still intact, with demon­stra­tors still in all the occup­pied trees. More pro­tes­tors were walk­ing into the main bot­tom site where pro­tes­tors were still in con­trol of the camp. There was a police pres­ence but they were only mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion. Indy­media has no con­firmed news from the fourth site but it is believed to be intact.

A sup­port­er of the protest told Indy­media “We call on peo­ple to come to Dalkei­th Coun­try Park to show sol­i­dar­i­ty. We can­not let this sense­less prof­it-fuelled destruc­tion go ahead.” Pro­tes­tors are arrang­ing trans­port to the site from the For­est Cafe on Bris­to Place in near­by Edin­burgh. Oth­er pro­tes­tors are mak­ing their way from Edin­burgh by pub­lic trans­port, to join locals from Dalkei­th and area (trans­port info at end of arti­cle).

The first of the four protest sites at Dalkei­th Coun­try Park was estab­lished on the 31 Octo­ber 2005 due to infor­ma­tion that tree felling for the A68 bypass (to be con­struct­ed dur­ing the sum­mer of 2006) 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.

TRANSPORT TO DALKEITH COUNTRY PARK
Trans­port is being arranged from the For­est Cafe, Bris­to Place, near George IV Bridge, Edin­burgh, which is also act­ing as an info point in Edin­burgh. More info 077532 80009

You can also make your way there inde­pen­dent­ly, by Loth­i­an bus 3 and 3a from Edin­burgh, direc­tions below.

Dalkei­th Protest Site Phone: 07783904369

DIRECTIONS to the main Protest Site
(There are four sites in total)
Please bear in mind the police may be obstruct­ing access.

The site is in a stand of pines on the north side of the Riv­er Esk after the two branch­es have joined and near the cut for the over­head elec­tric lines.

Enter Dalkei­th Coun­try Park at the north end- entrance off of the A6094 at Smeaton Lodge (between Dalkei­th and White­craig). Go past Home Farm towards the Riv­er Esk, after cross­ing the bridge the protest site can be accessed by the first farm track on the left (note the site is not acces­si­ble for vehi­cles).

Alter­na­tive­ly, enter Dalkei­th Coun­try Park from the main entrance off of the High Street in Dalkei­th. Straight ahead after you go through the gates, then stay on the road lead­ing to the right past the adven­ture play­ground, shop and cafe­te­ria; after pass­ing the graz­ing fields and pass­ing under three pow­er lines cut the road will split. There is a promi­nent Scots pine here. Take the left fork towards the Riv­er Esk. After a short dis­tance, again take the left fork when the road splits and go down the hill. After cross­ing the bridge, the protest site can be accessed by the first farm track on the left. This is around 35–40 min­utes walk.

From Edin­burgh, Loth­i­an Bus­es 3 and 3a go to Dalkei­th, you can use a day tick­et for this jour­ney.

For more infor­ma­tion on the cam­paign to Save Dalkei­th Coun­try Park, vis­it www.save-dalkeith-park.org.uk/