THE organisers of an anti-Trident protest taking place near Coulport have repeated their pledge not to disrupt daily life for residents of the Rosneath peninsula.

The 'Trident Ploughshares' campaign group is expecting to welcome supporters from France, Germany, Spain and Scandinavia, as well as from throughout the UK, to the camp at Peaton Wood, which starts on Saturday and runs until July 16.

The eight-day camp will take place around half a mile away from the Coulport armaments depot where the nuclear warheads used on the UK's Trident ballistic missiles are stored.

Local Ministry of Defence Police personnel told community councils in Rhu and Garelochhead recently that talks had taken place with Trident Ploughshares representatives and minimum disruption to everyday life on the peninsula was expected.

David Mackenzie from Trident Ploughshares said this week: “We want our protest to have an impact on the bases but not on the local population.

“We've been talking to Police Scotland and the Ministry of Defence Police [MDP] about the protests and I think everybody has the same aim.

“Police have options open to them in certain situations to make it easy for locals to get through. We don't want to disrupt ordinary life in any way.

“We share one common aim, which is the safety of the public, and there is a fair understanding from both the civilian and MoD police of what we are about.”

The camp's organisers are hoping that by the time their protest begins, agreement will have been reachedthe United Nations over a global nuclear weapon ban treaty – though the world's nuclear powers, including the UK, are not attending the New York talks.

The campers' numbers next week are expected to include nuclear physicist Dominique Lalanne, chair of Abolition of Nuclear Weapons-France, who said: "I am coming from France to make clear that nuclear weapons is a global  problem for all of us, French as well as Britannic people.

“I want a nuclear free world and I hope the ban treaty will convince our two peoples that we have to take the lead."

Another campaigner, Petter Joelson, who will travel to Coulport from Sweden, said: "We’re coming here as a family with our 2 year old son, because we think it is crucial to be a part of a movement for a safer future.

“Nuclear weapons, together with climate change, can completely devastate the planet, and I think it is my responsibility as a parent and human being to do what I can to stop that.”

For Trident Ploughshares Jane Tallents said: “In the struggle to rid the world of the threat of nuclear war there is every place for conventional political action and for public education and persuasion.

“But when you are dealing with something as morally deviant as these weapons of mass destruction there is also an important place for nonviolent confrontation.”