On 3rd January 2019 eight Trident Ploughshares defendants appeared or were represented in Reading District Court, to enter a plea for their successful all day blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Burghfield, back on 24th October. Representatives of the MOD police from AWE Burghfield requested that the bail conditions – to go nowhere near AWEs Aldermaston or Burghfield – be extended until the trial on the 23rd and 24th of April, but the Judge refused this request and they were all given unconditional bail.
Jed Picksley, one of the Campaigners said “last year, AWE Burghfield were fined nearly a million pounds for health and safety violations. The public is being exposed to massive unknown risks and the site must be shut down immediately.”
Another of the campaigners Julia Mercer, 69, said “Even if AWE Burghfield had a squeaky clean record, we would still be campaigning to close this abominable place. The illegal, immoral weapons it makes have no place in modern society”