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Fuelling the controversy
Page 22
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Talk in the press last week was all about fuel protest blockades: would they take place or not? Chris Tindall reports.
0 ne message coming out of the haulage industry last week, amid threats of renewed fuel protests. was that the media was circling overhead, hungrily waiting for protagonists to fail before going in for the kill.
The fuel lobby's plans were flawed, journalists apparently crowed, the appetite for action didn't exist in strong enough doses. And newspapers were obsessed with talk of a -blockade -, an action that could not be further from protesters' minds.
But in trying to predict what will, or will not, have happened at the country's oil refineries by the time you read this, a picture of an uncoordinated lobbying group sending out contradictory messages began to take shape. So, how else was the situation to be interpreted, other than as a potential failure?
Timing
On top of this, sources within the industry were making noises about "inconsiderate" timing while the country was still reeling from terrorist attacks. No one would support a protest that would disrupt fuel supplies, they said, and if they did the government would move quickly to nip in the bud any perceived security lapse.
However, Andrew Spence, for the Fuel Lobby. was saying:"There is nothing potential about it. It's going to happen.
As CM went to press, Spence was maintaining that nine refineries in his area of the country (North East England) would be targeted on 14 September. Coordinators in the rest of the country would target other refineries, although he couldn't say how many that would be.
"We are not planning on blockading them," he said."What we are saying is peaceful protest at these refineries. And if they decide they do not want to send out vehicles due to safety then that's their decision."
But the message coming out of Wales, and more specifically Alan Greene at M&M Greene Services in Llanelli. was much different.
-The statement made by Andrew Spence that he's going to bring the country to a stop [on 14 September]; well, he hasn't picked up the phone and spoken to me. We have to be very, very careful," said Greene.
He added that meetings with hauliers were scheduled to take place to test the water over pro tests, and no decision would be taken until that time. However, he agreed with Spence on the nature of the protest. "Shell tankers will stop and join us.There's no way we can make someone do something they don't want to.
Peaceful
Spence also claimed the Road Haulage Association fully supported his methods for a peaceful protest. The trade organisation says it supports legal protests but only as part of a wider campaign. But the Freight Transport Association questions its worth. An FTA spokesman said: "We are sympathetic with what [protesters] are saying, hut we don't think it's the right way to go about it.
"The government never reacts well when it's been held to ransom.You can't force its hand. We need to sit around a table and keep up the lobbying and pressure, hut through facts and figures, explaining the problems in the industry."
The Department for Trade and Industry is responsible for pulling together the police, industry and the government to organise and review contingency plans for dealing with protesters, should action take place.
A spokesman would not comment on whether these had been reviewed in light of the terrorist attacks in London, but said: "The plans that we have are designed to deal with disruption, or threat of disruption, of supply... we are not looking at actuating those plans."
Greene summed up the mood saying: "There's a peaceful way of doing things and a hard man's tactics. And once we use hard man's tactics we have lost the plot."•