Press Releases & Updates 2001

The eleven protesters who were arrested yesterday for halting a convoy carrying nuclear warheads were released on bail from Stirling Sheriff Court this afternoon. Sheriff William Reid agreed to them all being given an extra bail condition of not entering the Stirling Council boundary except to appear for trial on dates in September and October.

The nuclear warhead convoy, meanwhile, was still inside Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport where the warheads will be unloaded prior to being fitted onto Trident missiles on a Vanguard class submarine.

The large convoy including the three trucks loaded with warheads passed through Stirling yesterday afternoon. For the last three years every warhead convoy travelling between the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Burghfield and RNAD Coulport has entered Stirling. They have not been able to go via Glasgow due to the weight restrictions on the Kingston Bridge.

A Nukewatch spokesperson who was in court to support the activists as they appeared in the dock said: "For years local people have been alerting the police, the council and politicians to the dangers of these weapons of mass destruction and the fact that they regularly pass through Stirling. They have done absolutely nothing. When responsible citizens take action to draw attention to what is going on they are banned from the area. It’s the bombs that should be banned!"

The protesters have now all been released and information is being collected about proper procedures not being followed during the arrests and at the police station. Also complaints about violent and unprofessional behaviour from certain officers are being considered.

[Update: The convey left Coulport on Sunday around 11.15am to return to Burghfield. Its unusually late departure may have been due to an hour-long blockade of Coulport’s construction gate by three activists locked to each other through a cast-iron tube.]

The convoy, comprising three trucks loaded with Trident nuclear warheads and a number of support vehicles, was tracked by Nukewatch from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Burghfield (which it left on Tuesday) to RAF Wittering, where it stayed overnight. It was picked up again on the M74 and tracked to Stirling. The activists intercepted it just a mile beyond Stirling, got underneath the vehicles and held it up for between 20 and 30 minutes. Motorists who were detained in the queues were patient and understanding when campaigners explained what was going on.

Among those arrested were Trident Three member Ulla Roder(45), from Denmark, Niels de Boer (27) from the Netherlands, people from Faslane Peace Camp and others from north and south of the border. They are being held in Stirling Police station and are expected to be released later this evening.

Helesburgh Nukewatch member, Eric Wallace, who was present but not arrested said: "It was good that folk held up in the traffic jam were supportive of what we were doing and accepted that the situation was so serious that we had to act. We will continue to take action against these appalling transports until the last warhead is taken back to Aldermaston and safely dismantled."

[Update: All those arrested were kept in police cells until their 2pm appearance at Stirling Sheriff Court the next day. Each of them accepted bail conditions that they would not return to Stirling except for their court diets.]

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