Animal lab protection
Speak have discovered the secret location of lab builders
The successful extension of Oxford University’s injunction against animal rights activists has been overshadowed by a sinister new threat from SPEAK, one of the animal rights group named in the court action. Protestors have discovered the secret location where workers on the site are transported to after work each day. The base, a college in Gloucestershire, was named on the organisation’s website.
The website stated, “The fact that SPEAK has managed to identify the precise location of where the workers are being housed will come as a major blow to the whole building project. The plans by the university to keep secret the workers’ location has been foiled. Such news will come as a shock to the university. Once again we have the university on the run - now is the time press home our advantage.
This is not the first time that activists have revealed details regarding contractors working on the site. In February activists protested outside the headquarters of a company which they discovered had supplied cranes to the site. The University had hoped to prevent intimidation to contractors with its injunction application, which was successfully granted this week although in a considerably diluted format.
Coming so soon after the court’s judgement, the latest revelation has cast doubt on the significance of the injunction which cost the University an estimated £150,000 in legal costs. The injunction, passed on Friday 16th May, denies protesters the right to loiter or protest within 100 yards of colleges or university residential buildings. It also protects all contractors who supply any goods or services to the University.
However, the University returned disappointed after failing to secure a large extension to the exclusion zone around the laboratory. The court ruled that it could be widened by about a hundred yards in one direction, a significant reduction from the entirety of South Parks Road, Mansfield Road and St Cross Road, which the University was expecting.
The injunction application asked that the weekly anti-lab protest should only be allowed to take place between 1pm and 2pm, that no amplification devices are used, and that the number of protestors should be limited to 12. The court rejected these proposals entirely, and maintained the current limits. The University declined to comment on the costs involved with the injunction.
A statement from Speak said, “Far from conforming to the blueprint they had submitted, the new injunction grants them very little extra. “Had their original requests been granted, animal rights protestors could �" in the worst case scenario �" have been excluded from a city within their own country, or at the very least, could have been banned from going anywhere near a half mile exclusion zone from the lab build itself.
“In the event, what they got was an exclusion zone that was extended by about a 100 yards, which hardly constitutes a victory as the University are claiming!” An Oxford University spokeswoman remained positive despite the result. “Obviously Speak will want to paint it as a failure. But it is in fact a very useful change.
Oxford University Registrar Dr Julie Maxton said, “Today’s judgment represents a significant advance for the cause of legitimate and essential scientific research at Oxford University. We all have the right to work and study in a safe and peaceful environment, free from threat, intimidation and disruption. That right is what the court has acknowledged today.
A spokesman for Lawson Cruttenden, the law firm which acted for the University, said, “The University achieved the main thrust of what they wanted. The judge was aiming for a solution which would leave both sides happy, and the result was a suitable balance.” Mr Justice Holland also indicated that the injunction should be brought back to the High Court for review periodically, or whenever new evidence arises.
1st Jun 2006