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Climate Camp Day Two - August 5

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Scotland-on-Hoo at Climate Camp
Scotland-on-Hoo at Climate Camp

Climate campers have stepped up onsite security after officers attempted to remove vehicles they claimed were blocking emergency access.

Media were today strictly banned from entering the conflict zone where a standoff between police and protestors continued today.

Until Monday’s raids police had freely entered onto the camp. Unsurprisingly relationships have since become a tad frayed with officers barred from entering the site although peace talks are underway.

The search area has been transformed overnight with a new sheltered holding area now in place in the Deangate Ridge golf course car park. Here the still steady flow of new arrivals are fully searched and name checked. The estimate for the total now on site is difficult to pin down, but is said to be anything from 800 to 1,000.

Police today unveiled a hoard of items found in a wooded area close to the camp, which they said were further evidence of the less than peaceful intent of some of the protesters - a figure of about 150 is bandied about.

Campers I spoke to were quick to deny any truth that protesters had hidden the stash of knives and makeshift weapons. One of them, Kevin Smith said: “We don’t have any faith in the story at all and this is the police with complete egg on their faces after the unnecessary heavy handedness and unjustified force they were using when they came onto the site on Monday.

“It is completely ridiculous. No-one has been storing weapons in the woods. We are here to stop a coal fired power station being built. How does having weapons help us in this aim?

“There were some problems with police at last year’s Heathrow protest.

“But we very quickly came to an arrangement with them, where we had a number of officers coming round at a certain time of day and patrolling the site then leaving again, it was all very calm.

“This year we didn’t see why the same thing couldn’t happen again but the police and the negotiations at the moment seem to be very unreasonable with the demands they are making of us. We are offering access to the site at certain times and they are turning it down.”

“We always want to talk and negotiate with the police and come to an arrangement that is amicable between everyone. Yesterday the campers were very frustrated that officers came onto the site in riot gear and today they are outraged when they hear of allegations of knives and weapons. They are surprised that the police could stoop so low as to discredit as to what we are trying to do.”

Despite the bitter words on both sides of the barricades the atmosphere on camp is the polar opposite of yesterday’s tense affair.

Everyone seemed relaxed, with a full programme of eco-workshops now up and running, including some out of bounds to us, planning for the weekend’s day of action.

The camp itself has been split into make up neighbourhoods based on regions across the UK. The place to be definitely seems to be London. The main tent in this part of the protest metropolis is a lounge with sofas and bean bags where people can be seen braiding hair, playing guitars and reading books. The kitchen is in full swing with preparations of the next meal well under way.

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