Npower speak with forked tongues, they are devious and ruthless.

They chose recently not to inform the High Court of their knowledge of a pending Public Enquiry regarding the lakes. An infamous draconian injunction was obtained that threatens us all.

If successful, the designation of a ‘Town Green’ status will prohibit npower’s plans forever and the spectacular 14-acre lake and wildlife will be retained for the enjoyment of future generations.

“Some essential maintenance would occur prior to dewatering”, said npower. Immediately, forty contractors flattened the 14-acre lake area and its islands; hundreds of trees were destroyed, many 40 years old and apparently without permission from the Forestry Commission.

Conveniently coinciding with the protest march on Saturday 10th March and conveniently as the sponsoring of the BBC ‘Red Nose Campaign’ builds up, npower announce an immediate postponement of work as ‘an active coots nest had been observed by their independent ecologist’. What puff and nonsense!

When tree felling was commencing a contractor was photographed destroying a swan’s nest; barbed wire placed at the waters edge had deterred further nesting attempts. Whilst the incident has been reported, npower claim not to have destroyed an ‘active nest’. Disturbing the water birds with powerboats, even with children aboard, has disturbed local residents even more.

If npower were hairdressers and Britney Spears had asked for ‘just a trim’, they would put 40 demon barbers to work, finish 90% of the work and then declare: “the independent npower nurse has found a nesting pair of nits in your eyebrows and we have immediately stopped work; however, in a few weeks we have plans for complete disembowelment”.

No doubt npower have now sent their contractors to the Brazilian Rain Forest to prune a few roses? Just routine maintenance of course!

Npower’s John Rainford, Manager of Didcot Power Station, replies to people who dare to complain saying there is no alternative to filling in Thrupp Lake and it was a tough decision. Work that one out!

The protest march on Saturday 10th March was magnificent. Protesters were welcomed at the Abingdon Guild Hall by the Town Crier and children from Radley Primary School entertained with a colourful display. Speakers giving encouraging support included the Mayor of Abingdon and local MP Dr Evan Harris.

Over 500 marched to the lakes, joined by many others on route to the Bowyers Arms in Radley. A message of support was read out from the famous Oxfordshire poet Pam Ayres:

“As a passionate supporter of wildlife conservation generally, I deplore the infilling of the Radley lake."

The greeting from Pam, currently in Australia was met with rapturous applause.

At the pub’s ‘Weekly Meet’ for the campaign’s ‘Poem, Song and Ode Contest’ prizes were given in several categories.

One poem from Rosie Hunt, aged 9, won £10

Radley Lake:
Radley Lake is the best place to be
When you want to chill out and be cool like me
There’s birds, there’s fish, there’s a gentle swooshing sound
As the clear water laps against the ground
The swaying trees cast a dappled shade
On plants and flowers in a cool green shade

But if nPower get their way
The lakes will face some terrible days

It won’t be quiet
It’ll be far too loud
‘cos there won’t be any wild life around
It’ll just be a pool of poisonous goo
And who wants that?
Not me or you

How much poison will be dumped into the water table and into the flood plain?

Those of you who find your house is on the Environment Agency's map of the "areas likely to flood" should look on the same map at Radley Lakes. There you will find Thrupp Lake and Bullfield Lake overlain with blue, indicating that flooding is expected over the two lakes. How will RWE npower prevent the toxins in their ash from escaping into the river and groundwater?

They will have long since departed these shores and repatriated their profits to Germany, and we will be left with a poisonous heritage!

The Radley Lakes should not be filled with ash and RWE npower should restore them to their former state. John Rainford, manager of Didcot A once said on BBC radio "we can create wildlife"! May I suggest he show us how?

I heard that NPower's resident Ecologist was on his hols when the Contractors were busy trashing birds nests and chasing swans and geese off the lake! The person who is named as finding Mr and Mrs Coot must have had to look very hard in amongst the debris that is littering the site. And what about the Environment Agency - will they act on a complaint made about NPower polluting the lake?
I expect it will be like the twelve breaches of their discharge licence on Lakes H & I, glossed over with a big whitewash brush.

Following Npowers suspention of some construction work at Thrupp Lake after advice from their pet ecologist, who discovered an active coots nest (Abingdon Herald March 15th) This is just a ploy to make people think they care, do they think we are all stupid? They were told to stop tree cuting on March 1st as this is when the nesting season starts, except birds don't have calanders and with the sasonal change things happen earlier. Its a pity they were not concerned when they hacked all their nesting sites to bits! Also its not just the birds, everything will be breeding underwater, fish,frogs,toads,newts etc the list is endless, thats if they havn't chopped all the eggs up with there constant careering around in boats. To go ahead with there plan will be murder and a real wildlife protection society should be informed. If they are supposedly concerned about wildlife why have they massacred this place of natural beauty? If they care about the birds why is there still a scarecrow on one of the islands, or is it just the coots that are allowed to nest? What will happen to all the water birds and their young? They can't fly as soon as they hatch. Or will the boats accidently mow them down? We have already had a dead goose floating on the lake!
If they really want to scare the birds, they should tie John Rainford to a stick and put him on the island, he bears a strong resemblance to Hitler in more ways than one.

And there is no one in the media prepared to report all this. What is wrong with them? Too afraid of injunctions? What happened to public interest broadcasting?
I like the idea of John Rainford taking the part of a scarecrow - he might need a job soon once RWE start to see the state of the situation he has led them into!

Npower have violated two human rites: The rite to a free press and the rite to protest peacefully. The lakes are a nature reserve and beautiful site, that should be enjoyed today and by future generations. The site holds home to many animals, who's lifes will be upturned by npowers selfish actions. The youth of today need that site, to learn to appreciate nature. Last year Npower made billions of pounds profit. This year they refuse to pay a comparitavly small fee to re-cycle their ash waste. Instead: they dump it on the land. The land does not belong to them. The land is for ALL. bold]bold

There is a poll on the Govt Website
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveRadleyLakes/
Vote and get an email which you have to open and click on the link inside to validate your vote.