Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors

Fairford Civil Liberties Watch

Lawyers have been instructed and legal action initiated to challenge to way the Dunfield Loop road closure has been used to prevent access to the camp and also challenge the use of the Terrorism Act to interfere with protests at Fairford. However we still need more incident reports to help build the cases. We know a lot of people have been searched or simply turned around and sent away when trying to visit the camp. If this has happened to you please take a few minutes to fill in an incident report... see below.

This picture shows an 11 year girl who had just been stopped and searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. She's holding up her copy of the search form and has since reported the incident.

It is now almost six weeks since the introduction of Terrorism Act 2000 Section 44 stop and search powers on March 8th. These stop and search powers are being used to harrass legal and peaceful protest. It is not unusual for members of the peace camp to be searched up to ten times in a day. Items removed from protesters following searches include marker pens, toothbrushes, blankets and shawls - items that have little or nothing to do with any known form of terrorism.

How To Report Incidents So if you're visiting Fairford and encounter the police behaving in a way that you find unacceptable we ask you to take note of the name (if they'll tell you), police number and police force of the officers involved and fill in a Legal Monitoring Form. These forms can be handed in at the peace camp of sent to the address given below. Alternative you may supply the same details in an email message to the email address give below or call the Fairford Civil Liberties Watch hotline to report the incident. We also encourage you report the incident, even if it happened a while ago, to your MP. A number of MP's are now concerned about the way the Terrorism Act has been used at Fairford but many are still unaware.

We suggest you download and print an legal monitoring form before your visit.

These forms are collected and collated by our civil liberties watch team and information is passed on to interested MPs, members of the House of Lords, our lawyers and civil liberties advocacy organisations. Since Fairford was the first area to be subject to a S44 authorisation it will be test case for the use or abuse of these powers. So it is important we make the best effort possible to record this information. If you as an individual feel you would like to take things further we suggest you think seriously about making a complaint - full information on how to do this is availabel on the Police Complaints Authority website.

Fairford Civil Liberties Watch Contact Details:

Leave your completed form at Fairford Peace Camp or post it to:

Fairford Civil Liberties Watch
Homeward
Oxlynch Lane
Standish
Gloucestershire
GL10 3DE

Or fax it to: 01453 828640

Or if you've not got a form and wish to report an incident please call: 01453 824212

Or send an email containing as much of the information we ask for on the form as possible to (you can use MS-Word to fill the form in then email it to us as an attachment - or just write a plain text message containing the same information): berkshirecia@hotmail.com or fairfordclw@gwi.org.uk