TREES BEING FELLED NOW — PEOPLE NEEDED ASAP AND OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, Dalkeith

TREES BEING FELLED IN DALKEITH NOW — Peo­ple need­ed now, and peo­ple and food and tat need­ed over the next few days, espe­cial­ly climbers and mid­night site builders
Tree felling start­ed yes­ter­day. Already about 12 big old oak and birch trees have been chain­sawed down. The pix­ies and the lit­tle folk appeared about 5am today. By the time the chain­saw wage slaves turned up for work this morn­ing there were walk­ways, ban­ners, and lots of hip­pies in the trees, So the chain­saw wage slaves are enjoy­ing a paid day of hang­ing around wait­ing for bail­ifs.

There are peo­ple in trees in lang­side, along salters road, and in a small but beau­ti­ful site that had already been set up at cas­tle steads next to the riv­er esk. PEOPLE NEEDED NOW, and peo­ple and food and tat need­ed over the next few days, espe­cial­ly climbers and mid­night site builders.

The plan­ning per­mis­sion for this road dates from way back in 1992. Since then, the Scot­tish Exec­u­tive has rec­om­mend­ed that a mul­ti­modal trasport sudy is done for this entire trans­port cor­ri­dor before any road build­ing goes ahead.The coun­cil’s pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion about the road is still sneak­ing qui­et­ly around the area, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to respond is open until 9th Decem­ber, but that has­n’t stopped the sense­less destruc­tion of the area.

A guy in a suit, claim­img to be a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Exec­u­tive, but refus­ing to give his name, angri­ly told every­one that they were tress­pass­ing and would get into trou­ble. the hip­pies respond­ed with mon­key nois­es, and the uniden­ti­fied suit stum­bled off with his top lip quiv­er­ing.

Come and bring us choco­late, come and join the fun!
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This after­noon, the 48-hour notice from the Sher­iffs Court was deliv­ered to the protest site at Dalkei­th Coun­try Park.

Ear­li­er this morn­ing, tree felling was start­ed. Five trees were lost includ­ing a beau­ti­ful old oak before pro­test­ers suc­cess­ful­ly blocked any fur­ther cut­ting and halt­ed work.

In response, the liai­son offi­cer deliv­ered the 48-hour notice stat­ing all occu­piers need­ed to leave dur­ing that peri­od or face pros­e­cu­tion.

More Peo­ple are urgent­ly need­ed to pro­tect this wood­land!

Back­ground

On Mon­day 31st Octo­ber, pro­test­ers set-up a tree-sit to stop the destruc­tion that will be caused by the Dalkei­th North­ern Bypass of the cur­rent A68. The tree-sit is in Dalkei­th Coun­try Park, a his­toric 850 acre park that serves as a valu­able wildlife habi­tat and is vis­it­ed by 50,000 peo­ple annu­al­ly. The pro­posed bypass would cut the wildlife habi­tat in two, and while the 1999 Strate­gic Road Review not­ed it would offer jour­ney sav­ings, it also not­ed the bypass would cause “gen­er­al­ly neg­a­tive rat­ings in the oth­er envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors, includ­ing glob­al air qual­i­ty, water, ecol­o­gy, visu­al impacts, her­itage, and land­scape char­ac­ter.” Although con­struc­tion is not sup­posed to begin offi­cial­ly until the sum­mer of 2006, because of the ear­ly spring nest­ing sea­son of birds and bats, tree-felling is to begin imme­di­ate­ly. In response to this emer­gency, anti-roads pro­test­ers have set-up a tree-sit and walk­ways in the pines that are in the path of the exten­sion. Pro­test­ers will also be present at Mid­loth­i­an Coun­cil’s upcom­ing pub­lic review to help present the case against the bypass­es through Dalkei­th Park and through Bil­ston Glen.

Pro­test­ers will remain in the trees until the bypass is defeat­ed.

Con­tact

Dalkei­th Protest Site Phone: 077839043697

For more infor­ma­tion on the cam­paign to Save Dalkei­th Coun­try Park, vis­it the

web­site of the legal cam­paign: www.save-dalkeith-park.org.uk/

There is a peti­tion on the Scot­tish Exec­u­tive’s site run­ning until the end of Novem­ber: epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/list_petitions.asp

Or you can email Mid­loth­i­an Coun­cil direct­ly at: local.planreview (at) midlothian.gov.uk or phone at Tel: 0131 270 7500

Direc­tions to the Protest Site

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. Stay on the road lead­ing to the right past the adven­ture play­ground, shop and cafe­te­ria; after pass­ing the graz­ing fields and the pow­er line cut the road will split. Take the left fork towards the Riv­er Esk. After cross­ing the bridge, the protest site can be accessed by the first farm track on the left.

From Edin­burgh, Loth­i­an Bus­es 3 and 3a go to Dalkei­th.