AN EIGHT-DAY anti-Trident protest camp near the Coulport armaments depot has been hailed a success by one of its organisers.

The Trident Ploughshares campaign group hosted protesters from across Europe at the disarmament camp in the Peaton Wood, a short distance from the base, from July 8-16.

The highest-profile incidents in the course of the week saw nine people arrested after protesters blocked the MoD-owned road between Whistlefield and Coulport on Tuesday and Thursday.

Five of the protesters appeared at Dumbarton Justice of the Peace Court last Wednesday, and a further two on Friday. All pleaded not guilty to breach of the peace charges.

Speaking to the Advertiser after the camp drew to a close, David Mackenzie from Trident Ploughshares said: “It was a very successful week – albeit that we didn't achieve our ultimate aim because the awful weapons stored at Coulport are still there.

“But we welcomed protesters two very successful blockades, which disrupted nobody apart from workers at the base, and had some good discussions about our future strategy.”

Two of the seven people arrested at last week's blockades were locked up following their court appearance, at which they refused to accept special bail conditions which would have prevented them going within 100 metres of both Coulport and Faslane.

Brian Quail, 79, and 66-year-old Angie Zelter pleaded not guilty to breach of the peace.

Zelter challenged her detention at the Sheriff Appeal Court on Tuesday, while Quail is due to appear at an intermediate hearing at Dumbarton JP Court on July 26.

“Having people imprisoned for two and a half weeks for a very peaceful protest seems to us totally disproportionate,” Mr Mackenzie added.

Three other protesters - Sam Donaldson, 29, from Hull, Almuneda Izquierdo Novo, 60, from Madrid, and Juan Carlos Navarro Diaz, 46, from the Canary Islands, were released after agreeing to adhere to the special condition.

Two more campaigners - Peter Adamson, 60, from Abertillery, and Esa Noresvo, 26, from Lieto in Finland - appeared before Fiona Millar JP on Friday and were released after agreeing to comply with the same bail condition.

They will stand trial on October 18.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: “Scottish courts should not be jailing people for protesting peaceful against the active deployment of a hideous weapon system that clearly breaches the Geneva Convention, which no less than 122 countries worldwide want to prohibit and eliminate, and which is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Scottish parliamentarians both at Holyrood and Westminster.

“It just does not make any sense.

“The principled stand of Angie and Brian is a wake-up call to us all to join the majority world.”

Mr Mackenzie, meanwhile, warned that the end of the Peaton Wood camp did not mean an end to the group's anti-Trident protests.

“If people imagine that's the end of protests at Faslane and Coulport, that would be a mistake,” he said.

“Until these dreadful weapons are gone our protests will continue, and we obviously hope that happens sooner rather than later.

“We now have a new United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty, signed by 122 countries, and we hope that helps put moral pressure on the countries which continue to arm themselves with nuclear weapons.”