When they tried to leave the police forced cars and vans into a service road and searched vehicles, took names and addresses and generally held every one up.

However, everyone eventually arrived at Heston services. From there people drove to Bristol Myers Squibb where a very noisy demo ensued. Several hundred protesters caused traffic to stop until police pushed people to the other side of the road. From there it was on to Chiron Patogenesis which is located in a quiet street. Anti-HLS stickers had been put on all the windows and doors around the building. After that it was on to Dow Chemicals. This building is on an industrial estate near Heathrow Airport. After a while protesters moved towards the main road and walked for a few hundred yards before some police officers began throwing people very aggressively, and without provocation, into the kerb. There were at least six instances of this which culminated in a woman protester being seriously injured and being taken to hospital with a head injury.

From there the protest moved to Merck Lipha in West Drayton. Hundreds of protesters moved from the building towards the town centre where the main road was blocked for over half an hour. There followed a short walk up the road and a rally at a busy junction but the police stopped people from completely blocking the road this time.

As far as I know there were no arrests. All in all it was a very successful day of action.

Follow-up-1

After West Drayton, most people went home, but about 30 went on to a GlaxoSmithkline site about a mile away where they were met by two security guards and four policemen. There was a noisy demonstration at the gates and the protestors were soon joined by about 8 minibuses of cops and a circling helicopter.

One man was driven in through the gates and a very noisy, angry crowd by his chauffer. Despite the police outnumbering protestors by about 3 to 1, the police hung around asking when the demo would be finished and complaining of wanting to go home because they were going out later!

Protestors took a few strolls around the area and eventually gradually dispersed.

Follow-up-2

Hope you dont mind me adding this bit, but were got there first and we beat the cops to Glaxo even though there must have been about 500 of them just a mile away! When we got there, there were no security guards either, they came running out of the building to stand at the entrance when they saw a handful of us. Then two coppers turned up about 10 minutes after security called them. They looked very uncomfortable standing there alone. The police were a joke as usual. On one demo we were on, it took them about half an hour to arrive.

While I was on the demos I was chatting to a few of the locals. They were stunned by the amount of police involved. I told them it was normal. They thought it was a complete waste of money, etc, etc. Anyway, one bloke told me that there was an armed response unit there too. He had had a bit of trouble with the law himself. He couldnt understand why they were so concerned about us because he said that a group of yobs were terrorising the estate where he lived, robbing, vandalism (and he was just about to set up his own vigilante group etc) and he said that one of them had actually driven their car right through the front of their house and the old bill turned up and just said 'there's nothing we can do' and left. So it really didnt show them in a good light at all, overpolicing the way they did when good folk are afraid to leave their homes. But, what's new? There was a lot of interest in the demos from the public and on the whole I thought it was a very successful day.

Follow-up-3

At South Mimms there were big hold-ups and pissed-off public while the police did the search. By taking off a car sticker and adjusting clothing we were able to get in a position where the police waved us straight past without a second thought that we were anti HLS.

I would suggest that taking the sort of jumper you wear to see your Granny or a replica football shirt (why else would 4 blokes be in a car together) might save you a lot of time.

But if you're in a minibus, you're buggered.