The last demonstrator has been removed from woodland near Brecon, Powys, where protesters chained themselves to trees to try to stop a gas pipeline. Six were arrested when the operation began on Tuesday, and the last three have now been taken away.
Dozens of people who wanted to stop the pipe crossing a historic woodland had set up a camp at Penpont, with some there for several months. National Grid won a court order allowing it to evict the protesters. The National Eviction Team took just two days to clear the site of all protestors from trees and one tunnel.
The penultimate protester, a woman, was brought down and arrested at lunchtime on Wednesday after she had complained of feeling unwell.
They had objected to this section of the £840m pipeline, planned to stretch from Pembrokeshire to Gloucestershire, cutting through the Brecon Beacons National Park. The site has now been restored to its natural condition, with the pipeline laying underneath the ground.
The N.E.T. is called in by Bellway Homes as protestors occupy an area that is intended to become a junction into a new housing estate. The Under Sheriff of Nottingham Richard Bullock sought the expertise of the National Eviction Team. The protestors had vowed to remain in place for weeks and incur the developer in millions of pounds cost. The reality was that the N.E.T. safely removed all protestors in one and a half days.
Around 1 month after we won the battle of Bryn Henllys farm, Celtic Energy the opencast mining operator had planning permission to mine Seller farm. The Protestors having been removed from Bryn Henllys farm, simply migrated to Seller. The Under Sheriff of Glamorgan didn't really have the appetite for the eviction and handed over the Under Sheriff role to Andrew Wilson, the Under Sheriff of Lancashire.
With the recent experience gained at Bryn Henllys and the lessons learned we were able to apply those to our second and most significant eviction. The eviction was sometimes fragile to say the least, with one protestor setting himself and a tree branch alight. He poured petrol over the tree and lit a match. He had been threatening to do this for around an hour, and of course the fire brigade were on hand to deal with that.
At the end of the 4 day eviction period everyone was absolutely shattered after fighting and grappling with around 75 protestors.
Machester Airport 2nd Runway - Phase 2 at Arthurs Wood
The Under Sheriff for Cheshire calls in the National Eviction Team for a second time. Randall Hibbert was the Under Sheriff responsible for the enforcement of Writs of Possession for the proposed second runway at Manchester Airport. The Under Sheriff required 3 teams for a second time involving the following:
- Ground Lock-On Teams
- Rope Access Teams
- A Confined Space Team
In total the eviction lasted 5 weeks, in the main due to the slow progress made by the Tunnelling Team that was brought in. We eventually removed around 48 Eco - Worriers from 1 encampment. The terrain at Arthurs Wood was pretty lethal, very step and extremely muddy. The eviction went pretty smoothly, however there was one incident whereby a protestors fell off his rope walk way, and taken to hospital.
Machester Airport 2nd Runway - Phase 1
The Under Sheriff for Cheshire calls in the National Eviction Team. Randal Hibbert was the Under Sheriff responsible for the enforcement of Writs of Possession for the proposed second runway at Manchester Airport. The Under Sheriff required 3 teams involving the following:
- Ground Lock-On Teams
- Rope Access Teams
- A Confined Space Team
In total the eviction lasted 6 weeks, in the main due to the slow progress made by the Tunnelling Team that was brought in. We eventually removed around 250 Eco - Worriers from 5 encampments. The Zion Tree, Sir Cliff Richard Flywood and River Rat encampments proving to be the more difficult ones. However the real challenging tree was Battlestar Galactica, well fortified with a platform surrounding the main trunk of the tree around 50 foot of the ground. It was our believe at the time that the occupants of Battlestar Galactica took some very unnecessary risks.
In 1995 this is where it all started for Martin Leyshon and Mike Anderson - The battle of Bryn Henllys Farm. There were 50 or more real hardened Eco - Worriers holed up in a disused farm house and out buildings. They had erected around six tree houses. As we entered the land we were met with some extreme opposition. For 4 days we were pelted with human waste, and all sorts of nasties.
Eventually when we removed the last protestor from site, there was a huge sigh of relieve, as we surveyed the land we could not believe what we had let ourselves in for. I do not use the word battle loosely, but that is exactly what it was - a battle.
We handed the land back to Celtic Energy in November 1995, a month that we will never forget.
The Under Sheriff of Devon Trevor Coleman calls in the National Eviction Team and an external tunnelling team from the south to assist his Officer Geoff Coombe, to remove protestors at the proposed Honiton Bypass. The NET successfully assisted over a 3 week period removing more than 100 protestors from 3 encampments. The Fairmile and Trollope encampments proved to be particularly troublesome, due to the hardline stance that Kit Kat and his fellow protestors took.
The Deputy Under Sheriff Simon Barnett said "I was was very impressed with how the National Eviction Team headed up by Martin Leyshon and Mike Anderson handled this eviction. As far as the Sheriffs Office in Devon is concerned they are the team of choice".
Richard Turner of Richard Turner Limited who provides the specialist climbing team stated "It was a real pleasure to have worked with the NET, this was the third occasion that we have assisted them, and they just get better and more professional with each eviction".
The tunnelling team brought up Daniel Hooper alias swampy as the last remaining protestor underground.
The National Eviction Team is called in by the Under Sheriff John James to assist the Sheriff of Staffordshire. Protestors had occupied Money-More cottage and surrounding land. The cottage had underground tunnels. The difficulty with this eviction is that the Protestors had removed internal walls, stairwells, and seriously undermined the integrity of the building.
Disco Dave a seasoned protestor was discovered under the floor boards, with Muppet Dave masquerading as an official legal observer.
The eviction lasted around 6 weeks, in the main due to the Tunnelling Team.
On a very cold morning the National Eviction Team (NET) enters the The Mainshill Wood Solidarity camp that was set up to oppose plans for an open cast mine near the village of Douglas. The NET were faced with around 50 Eco-Warriors who were contained within 5 separate encampments spread over a 350 Acre site, all protestors were either at height, down a tunnel or locked on. Through the experience and professionalism of the NET 46 people were removed from their Lock-Ons and arrested.
Martin Leyshon said that "I am absolutely delighted at the way this eviction has gone, there were many challenging and unique Lock-Ons to deal with, however after some quick dynamic risk assessments we overcame everything that they could throw at us, after 21 years I thought that I had pretty much seen it all, until Mongoose was discovered suspended around 12 foot above ground, cocooned in a corrugated hardened water tube, de-locking her neck to the handle of a dust bin lid reversed into the tube'.
The eviction and safe removal of the protestors took four and a half days to complete. Colin Murphy Chief Inspector of Strathclyde Police said " In all my years as a Police Officer I have never seen anyone put their life's in danger such as these people, I am in awe at the NETs climbers and the professional way that they have removed people from height.