When I posted this event there were only 3 people including me who had said they would be coming but we decided to go ahead anyway. As the day grew closer people started emailing me and phoning me to say they would be coming along and I got more and more hopeful. This campaign has really affected people and they want to do something about this more tnan any campaign recently.
On the morning, I was expecting maybe 8 people so imagine my surprise when lots of other people turned up completely unexpectedly. We had 15 activists at the maximum, and of these, 8 had never done anything with Greenpeace before. Everyone had a good time and hopefully we now have a new team of activists to call on.
The garage was opposite Tesco so it was no surprise to find Julie positioning herself at an entrance to the superstore car park. Other activists posted themselves at the nearby pelican crossing lights and someone (you know who you are) risked life and limb talking to people in cars as they waited at traffic lights.
When we arrived there was already a sort of police car - it said something about caring for the community on the side - and there were 2 sort of policemen inside (PCSO's) who introduced themselves by their first names and took leaflets to take back to the police station with them. The garage assistant knew we were coming and took the letter from John Sauven and that was that. All very low key.
There are only 3 Shell garages in Nottingham and they are all in places where there is not a lot of pedestrian traffic so our main target was the motorists. Most took a leaflet - in fact many of them asked for one! Honks and shouts of support from passing cars cheered us up on the first hot day in Nottingham for ages. Shouted conversations as to why we were there: 'Why are you closing the garage?' The implication being we should not be depriving me of my petrol. 'We aren't - we're protesting that Shell want to drill in the Arctic' 'Oh, right - thats not on. good luck'
Thank you Manuel for coming back from Spain and bringing the sun with you.
The photographer from the Evening Post came along and took our picture but I have yet to see it in the paper.
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