Climate protester breaches RBS Gogarburn security and glues herself to desk

Published on Friday 20 August 2010 14:46

A CLIMATE change protester managed to breach security at the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland by making an appointment to speak to an adviser and then glued herself to a desk.

The woman dressed in bank worker-style clothes to avoid detection by police and bank security guards before the stunt yesterday.

An hour later, shortly before noon, up to 150 protesters managed to get past security guards and into the bank's grounds at Gogarburn.

They danced round the perimeter of the building while music blared out from a sound system mounted on a bike.

A handful of activists then got past the first of two sets of automatic doors at the bank's entrance but left the building after being stopped by security officers.

Hundreds of Camp for Climate Action eco warriors, including families with children, have set up camp on land owned by the bank behind its HQ.

The activists have warned of a range of "non violent" protests throughout the city over the coming days with "satellite" actions by offshoot groups in surrounding areas.

Hundreds of activists are expected to travel to Cousland, Midlothian, today to join local people objecting against proposals to turn a disused airfield into an opencast mine.

However businesses and police are gearing themselves up for Monday when more than 1,000 protesters are taking part in a massive promised Day of Action against the bank.

Last night, organisers for the Camp for Climate Action praised the "non-violent" protest action.

Dan Glass, a member of the camp's media team, said: "I think the protests today, especially the woman's actions, have been brilliant. They were a strong and legitimate form of protest aimed at stopping a higher crime - that of RBS's role in financing fims who are destroying the environment.

"Civil disobedience can play a strong and legitimate role in public protest and what happened today was highly creative.

Mr Glass added: "RBS themselves at Gogarburn have been quite nice to us providing things like water but we are not going to be fooled by their nicey-nicey attitude."

An RBS spokeswoman said: "Our priority is to ensure we minimise disruption for staff and customers. As you would expect we have taken a number of precautionary measures to that end, including providing alternative work locations for some staff where appropriate. Gogarburn and all our offices and branches remain open."

She added: "We are very willing to engage with any of the protest groups about climate change issues."

The protest camp at Gogarburn has caused the temporary closure of the RBS staff creche with bosses deciding it was unsafe for children to attend.