Steve Acheson Court Hearing

7 December 2010:  We got 6 or 7 people over to the Runcorn County Court to support Steve, much to the amazement of court officials.  It is a strange court, as only Steve was allowed in to a room where a judge sat in chambers, the rest of us had to wait in a room outside. The hearing was supposed to take 15 minutes, but actually took 45. The lawyers did not attend, both barristers just phoned in for a teleconference.

According to Steve the SSE barrister was rather flummoxed that he had turned up to his own court hearing! Her case was that SSE own the land, but she only had old photos from last year, before they planted the thorn bushes on their land, since when Steve has stood on a concrete platform originally built in 1984 to keep striking miners from putting their caravan on the verge. It would appear that this platform is part of the public footpath by the side of the road, and she was sent off to clarify this.

The judge seemed to sense that Steve is engaged in an unequal struggle and was very helpful to him. he delayed the next court hearing in January and the case is now set back to April.

Many thanks to everyone for their support so far. Steve is next in court in Manchester 22nd December for a hearing to determine what, if any, compensation he should get for being unlawfully refused employment at Fiddlers Ferry. We will be attending in solidarity.

Regards
Andy,
Campaigns officer
Warrington Trades Council

Steve Acheson has been picketing Fiddlers Ferry power station on the banks of the Mersey in Widnes, Cheshire to draw attention to the blacklist against trade unionists in the industry. You can find out more about the issues on http://www.hazards.org/blacklistblog/