250 Turn
Out to Protest Over Destruction of Lake
[posted
18/02/2007]
The
procession heading towards The Lakes along Thrupp
Lane
Yesterday,
in an unprecedented show of local anger, people came
out in their droves, young and old, all united to
stop RWE npower's plans to
destroy Thrupp Lake .
Led
by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Abingdon, and by
Andy Boddington, local CPRE
campaign manager, approximately 250 people came at
less than 24 hours notice to walk from Radley to the
Lakes where they assembled on a nearby desolate area
already ruined by npower's activities.
Despite
the devastation already wreaked
on Thrupp lake by npower's contractors, who were
still at work cutting down trees even as the procession
passed by, the resolve of the community to pursue
the Town Green designation remains unabated, and is,
if anything, stronger than ever. The anger at npower's
arrogance in starting work on the site before the
Town Green determination was barely contained, and
the decision by npower to keep their goons
penned up for the afternoon was perhaps a wise one.
The
campaign's Saturday protest went ahead in spite of
npower's attempts to use a draconian legal
injunction to stifle local protest. "The
injunction is of a kind previously used against violent
animal rights protestors." said Roger Thomas
of Save Radley Lakes . "Anybody coming to the
protest walk would have seen we are just ordinary
local people trying to protect something we hold dear.
Protestors and many legal experts have been appalled
by npower's bullying and intimidation".
As Andy
Boddington said, when he addressed the assembled crowd,
"for generations British people have had to fight
to protect their open spaces from those who want to
use them for commercial gain. What we have seen today
suggests many local people are deeply angry about
RWE npower's high handed arrogance. So we say, teach
npower a lesson - don't buy your electricity from
them. Instead get it from a supplier who doesn't use
dirty coal and then choose to dump the ash in local
beauty spots".
Basil
Crowley, Radley Parish Councillor and a leading member
of Save
Radley Lakes, expressed determination to proceed
with the Town Green application in spite of the destruction
taking place. He said, in his address, "Trees can
be replanted and will grow again. Until then, this
place will be a testimony to corporate greed and willfulness.
Let this message go out to every other public and
private corporation in the land that this is wrong."
