For the first time ever the cry went up "can we finish now, it's too hot?" And it was. A fantastic contingent of 8 of us turned up at the BP garage in Daybrook, north of Nottingham, with our Robin Hood outfits and one of the two the tar sands posters we had to hand. It was quickly decided that it was too hot to dress up but Sue and Johnny couldn't resist wearing Robin Hood hats anyway.
The purpose of the protest was to convey to BP via garages across the country that people are not happy about their hair brained scheme to dig for tar sands in Canada. Tar sands are so wrong in so many ways: extraction uses 3 times as much energy to produce one barrel of oil from tar sands as it does to produce one barrel of oil from 'conventional' sources; the water used in the process is so toxic birds can't sit on the tailings lake without being poisoned; the local first nations are suffering from cancers; forests are being destroyed in the process and finally so much gas is used to heat the water that now we are in a position where unconventional gas sources are being used.
The staff in the garage looked rather worried as we approached them in our glamourous Greenpeace tabards to deliver the letter from Greenpeace to the manager. The manager was not there so I made them promise to make sure the manager got the letter and that he passed it on to BP HQ. While that was happening the photographer from the Nottingham Post was arranging Sue, Kirsty and Dave in a suitable pose in front of the BP tower. We will look out for that in the paper on Monday.
Public response was good and we even got some toots from passing motorists and once I hopped quickly onto a passing bus to give the driver a leaflet. The staff from the Kwik Fit garage on the corner were watching and laughing BP's fate so they got leafletted as well. Then someone had to call the police (there's always one, isn't there?). The poor CPSO had to trail up the hill from Sherwood police station. We knew he was heading for us as he had that purposeful police stride about him. He was very nice and admitted he might have protested in the past as well. We gave him a leaflet and pointed out his pension was at risk because both Notts police and Nottingham City Council pension funds are part of the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund and they invest in BP. Then he took his hat off to wipe his head and his bald head was covered in beads of sweat. All togther now....ahhh, bless.
4 out of the 8 of us were on their first Greenpeace local activity and all said they really enjoyed it. that's good. It was fun but boy was it hot! Thanks to Sue, Andrea, Dave, Kirsty, Johnny, Harry and Sarah for sharing the day and the fun.
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