Living in the shadow of Star Wars

Menwith Hill was invaded by Greenpeace protesters this month

By BBC News Online's Mike McKay at Menwith Hill

Standing at the main entrance to the Menwith Hill satellite station, Lindis Percy gazes intently at the military policemen gathered by the heavily sandbagged security post.

There is a faint look of Virginia McKenna, the British movie star of the 50s and 60s, about to deal with some troublesome wartime prison guards.

Protester Lindis Percy: Security is "hopeless"

Pointing at a line painted across the station's entrance, she says: "If I step over that yellow line, I'm committing contempt of court. They say."

She is not sure how many times she's been convicted - "about a dozen" - but calculates she has spent around nine months in prison for her campaign of defiance against the US base in North Yorkshire which features in the US's Star Wars plans.

Eight miles from Harrogate, RAF Menwith Hill, to give its official status, has been subject to a little-noticed protest campaign for the best part of 20 years.

As well as Mrs Percy's efforts, a Greenham-style women's peace camp kept vigil during the early 1990s.

Greenpeace raid

Now a weekly vigil takes place, mounted by Mrs Percy's group, the Campaign for Accountability of American Bases (CAAB).

But she is first to admit that what put Menwith suddenly in the national spotlight was the Greenpeace 'invasion' of the base on 4 July.

In a dawn raid, activists - some dressed as mock missiles - scaled the razor wire fence with ladders and swarmed over the base.

I'm not opposed in principle to the base but we need to know broadly what's planned.

Mike Gardner, local councillor

The series of huge golf-ball shaped radomes had seen nothing like it.

But Greenpeace protesters have moved on - leaving communities around the base both bemused and concerned.

Lindis Percy says: "Security here is hopeless.

"I used to walk in a lot. In the 90s, they never even had ID and the steel fence only went up three years ago.

'Pre-emptive strike risk'

"Imagine if a terrorist walked in here with a suitcase bomb.

"They don't need to fire missiles from the other side of the world."

She and other protesters argue that George Bush's 'Son of Star Wars' project does two things - unilaterally scraps the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty and exposes North Yorkshire to serious risk of a pre-emptive enemy strike.

The Rev Frank Chappell: "Sympathy" with Americans

Harrogate Borough Council, spurred by alarming reports about the 'Son of Star Wars' proposal, wrote to the prime minister seeking more information.

The council is pursuing a careful balancing act.

It told Downing Street it had always taken a supportive role towards Menwith Hill.

But it said it felt it could not represent its citizens without knowing what the risk assessment was for the base.

A meeting is now being set up with the Ministry of Defence, and other local authorities as well as the national parks' authority are expected to join it.

Mike Gardner, leader of the opposition Tory group on the Lib-Dem Council, says: "I'm not opposed in principle to the base but we need to know broadly what's planned.

This village has grown three or four-fold over the last 30 years and a good bit of that is due to the economic benefit of Menwith Hill

Graham Fraser, local councillor

"I certainly don't want to see Harrogate become a risk area, either from pre-emptive strikes, or because constant demonstrations hit us economically."

Closer to the base, there is a more defensive, even defiant, attitude.

Graham Fraser, who sits on the parish council in Darley village, worked as manager of a supermarket within the base for 30 years.

He says he made a good living and owes Menwith a lot.

He said: "We have good relations with the base. I've had some damn good times up there and I'm not losing any sleep about pre-emptive strikes.

"In fact I feel safer."

Close ties

"This village has grown three or four-fold over the last 30 years and a good bit of that is due to the economic benefit of Menwith Hill."

The local vicar, the Rev Frank Chappell says only one of his parishioners - "a local lady" - expressed support for the recent Greenpeace protest.

He too describes an enduring tradition of close association between villagers and the base.

Menwith Hill could see further protests

He thought the Greenpeace "invasion" was all a "a bit stage-managed" and says he would be surprised if the Americans at the base didn't know something about the demonstration in advance - though eye-witness accounts at the time suggest a station caught badly off guard.

Mr Chappell said: "I have some sympathy with the Americans, given that a generation ago they were caught with their pants down at Pearl Harbour.

"Yes, I think, I'm slightly pro-American on this."

He says among villagers there is a suspicion that the campaigners are stirring up fears unjustifiably.

But with the Bush administration promising more interceptor tests, of the kind successfully conducted over the Pacific last weekend, Menwith Hill and its surrounding villages could find themselves increasingly at the centre of a Star Wars protest movement.