UK holds greens in ship boarding

GREENPEACE campaigners were reportedly arrested today after boarding a coal vessel bound for the Kingsnorth power station in Kent, southern England.

The environmental activists, who oppose coal-fired power stations, climbed aboard from inflatable speedboats about 2250 on Sunday as the vessel approached the power facility near Hoo, according to the BBC.

After 22,530dwt bulker Sir Charles Parsons docked at Kingsnorth, three men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage, London’s Times newspaper reported, while a second woman was arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft, after allegedly shining a light at a police helicopter.

“This is a working, coal-carrying vessel – and clearly a dangerous environment for anyone who hasn’t been trained to work in it,” Kent assistant chief constable Gary Beautridge told reporters.

A spokesperson for E.ON, which owns Kingsnorth, told reporters: “What they have done in getting on to the ship was incredibly dangerous and clearly unacceptable.”

E.ON plans to build a bigger coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth to replace its present plant. If would be the first new coal-powered plant in the UK for a quarter of a century.

(Source: American Shipper)