On 27 January, activists interrupted representatives of the nuclear industry giving evidence to the energy and climate change parliamentary select committee. Two demonstrators unfurled a six-foot banner reading: “Local Democracy Dumped!” – decorated with radiation symbols and pyramids of radioactive waste drums – in the centre of the room, while a third handed out briefings explaining why nuclear power was not the appropriate technology for tackling climate change.
The three, plus another who’d been photographing the incident, were dragged away by police and detained within the palace of Westminster for over two hours for alleged breaches of “house rules”. The activists were protesting against the way that the new fast-track planning process, introduced under the Planning Act (2008) is undermining local democracy. In future, crucial decisions on major infrastructure projects will be made by an unelected quango known as the “infrastructure planning commission”.
The three were released without charge (though their banners were confiscated) and they were banned from parliament for the rest of the day, missing the afternoon session at which anti-nuclear groups presented evidence.
Topics: Nuclear power