[Bilstonglen] eviction article

[Positive Vibrations]

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=74972006
Monday 16th January 2006
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Eviction team acts to uproot tree-top road protest camp
KATIE EMSLIE AND GARETH ROSE

THE eviction of protesters living in trees in Dalkeith Park began today 
as police and sheriff officers moved in to remove them.

This morning, a specially trained team of eviction officers scaled 
trees using ropes and wearing crash helmets to evict the eco-warriors 
camping in the park in a bid to thwart work on the Dalkeith Bypass.

An estimated 20 protesters have made makeshift homes in trees, using 
ropes and netting, while others have dug tunnels, hoping to prevent the 
felling of trees to make way for a ?30 million A68 bypass.

The 20-strong eviction team, brought in from Wales, began the eviction 
by cordoning off a clump of trees close to the Thornybank Industrial 
Estate in Dalkeith, near Langside Farm, shortly before 8am to remove 
four protestors.

Teams of police officers and eviction team members stood at the foot of 
the trees surrounded by protest banners with "Save our trees", "No 
Bypass" and "Stop the road. Halt greed", written on them.

As a crane waited on standby, officers scaled one of the trees where 
protesters wrapped in sleeping bags had wound themselves up in a cargo 
net, having used cutting gear to trim some of the lower branches.

By 11am today, one male protestor had left the site of his own accord 
and they hoisted down another bearded man wearing a hooded sweatshirt 
and he was escorted off carrying his backpack and plastic bags and 
driven away in a police van.

Supt Finlay Borthwick of Lothian and Borders Police said: "A man has 
been arrested and is expected to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court 
tomorrow charged with a public order offence."

Another man, from Aberdeen, was still camping up a tree and a fourth 
person was chained to a steel trap on the ground which he claimed was 
attached to a tunnel.

Authorities today said they believed it would take two weeks to remove 
all the eco-warriors and it is estimated the operation will cost up to 
?1.4m, or ?100,000 a day.

It is understood that if the protestors descend peacefully, they will 
not face charges.

But warrants have now been issued for their removal and in the early 
exchanges this morning the group showed no signs of being willing to 
leave their posts.

A 43-year-old protester from Midlothian, who would give his name only 
as Fudge, said the demonstrators realised they were about to be evicted 
when Swansea-registered National Eviction Team (NET) vans were spotted 
in Dalkeith town centre yesterday.

Police vehicles were also seen parked in a farm track a few hundred 
yards from the Langside protest site overnight.

He said: "We always knew we would get evicted, it's a foregone 
conclusion.

"But as long as we have done all that we can do to raise awareness 
about what's going on, then it's worth it.

"I'm just a local man forced into direct action.

"I'm not grabbing the limelight but yesterday I went to Dalkeith Police 
Station and put myself forward as the liaison person for the team."

He said he had been up all night taking food to protesters in the 
different sites.

The specially-trained National Eviction Team is working on behalf of 
the Sheriff's Office with the backing of Lothian and Borders Police.

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "They are being given the chance 
to move by themselves. If they do not then they will be moved by the 
eviction team.

"There have been regular discussions but the protestors have so far 
refused to leave the site."

Workmen are on standby to start chopping down trees as soon as the 
protestors have been removed to stop the demonstrators returning to the 
park and restaging their protest.

The eviction teams are likely to stay on site during day light hours, 
and will probably leave at 3pm or 4pm each day.

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