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5 June 1998
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk Subject: Re: Menwith Hill Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 12:57:17 +0100 From: Alec Muffett - SunLabs <Alec.Muffett@UK.Sun.COM> Ian Brown wrote: >> P, a campaigner against the activities of US defence forces at an RAF base >> at Menwith Hill, had a final injunction made against her forbidding her >> from entering or crossing land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at >> Menwith Hill, other than the lawful use of public footpaths which traversed >> the property. > >Perhaps we should organise a day's walking trip ;) Menwith's a beautiful area, modulo the golf-balls; I was up there at the May bank-holiday (en route to Gateshead) and stopped in at the menwith protest camp for a chat, but everyone must have been off protesting, somewhere... This thread harks back to an idea I had/discussed with Whit at SFS2 last week; I was flirting with the idea of floating a company, eg: SigInt Tours (UK) Ltd - which would do bus-trips around the perimeter of all the major Intelligence agencies, listening bases, AEW stations, etc, and organise whatever would be appropriate entertainment in the local area... So we could do: Cheltenham (shopping) Menwith Hill / Fylingdales (breweries) Morwenstowe (cream teas) Malvern (rambling) Bletchley (geeking) ...and other sites, etc, and drive around in a bus, preferably one with blacked out windows and a satellite-dish monnted on the roof. I think (given the right marketing) it would fly. Anyone interested? 8-) - alec -- alec muffett, sun microsystems laboratories, alec.muffett @ uk.sun.com * <A HREF="file:/dev/mouse">do not click on this link</A> *
Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 15:30:48 +0100 To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk From: Nicholas Bohm <nbohm@ernest.net> Subject: Menwith Hill In view of recent references to Menwith Hill and its functions, the list may be interested in the following summarised law report: Legislation: Military Lands Act 1892 s.14 Case: Secretary of State for Defence v Percy P, a campaigner against the activities of US defence forces at an RAF base at Menwith Hill, had a final injunction made against her forbidding her from entering or crossing land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at Menwith Hill, other than the lawful use of public footpaths which traversed the property. The land was the subject of certain bylaws, made by the Secretary of State under the Military Lands Act 1892 s.14 , forbidding people from, inter alia, entering the "applicable area", but a Crown Court judge had subsequently found the bylaws to be invalid on the basis that the "applicable area" referred to land which could not properly be regarded as having been appropriated for military purposes. However, MoD decided to retain all its bylaw notices and, with the Secretary of State, brought motions to commit P to prison for breaches of the injunction on the grounds that she had removed bylaw notices from the base. P contended that (1) lack of definition of the boundaries of the public footpath over the land meant that it could not be proved that the notices were outside them, and (2) removal of the notices simply remedied MoD's decision to retain unlawful bylaw notices. Held, that (1) since P's only reason for going onto the public footpath was to remove the notices, as opposed to passing and repassing, she had been a trespasser, and (2) whilst it was an abuse of statutory power for MoD to retain the notices, knowing that the bylaws were invalid, members of the public had no legal right to enter private property to remove such notices and thereby enforce the law. In the absence of any legal justification for her actions, P was in breach of the injunction, and the period of the suspended sentence imposed on her for earlier breaches of injunctions would be extended to run 12 months from the date of judgment. Court: Chancery Division; Judge: Carnwath, J. Judgment date: April 24, 1998 Reference: Times, May 11, 1998 Regards, Nicholas Bohm Salkyns, Great Canfield, Takeley, Bishop's Stortford CM22 6SX, UK Phone 01279 870285 (+44 1279 870285) Fax 01279 870215 (+44 1279 870215) Mobile 0860 636749 (+44 860 636749) PGP RSA 1024 bit public key ID: 0x08340015. Fingerprint: 9E 15 FB 2A 54 96 24 37 98 A2 E0 D1 34 13 48 07 PGP DSS/DH 1024/3072 public key ID: 0x899DD7FF. Fingerprint: 5248 1320 B42E 84FC 1E8B A9E6 0912 AE66 899D D7FF