About three weeks ago, the roof top protesters at Venture Quays in East Cowes made the decision to end their occupation.
After they’d cleared the area on the roof of the building and passed down their belongings, the three remaining protesters abseiled down the side of the building to be met by a crowd of supporters and media.
We caught up with Martin Shaw who was the first of the three to come down.
He told us what an amazing coalition there had been between Vestas workers, RMT and political activists. He said it felt like a mini ‘climate camp’ on roof as they were saving rain water, composting and using solar power to keep phone and laptops charged.
He was able to quash rumours relating to the undesirable smells experienced by those working in the building and gave us the low down on how they managed to enter the site without problem.
Martin went on to say that the group had stayed on the roof far longer than originally intended, driven on by the motivation of the campaign and having received amazing support from locals who had been busy baking cakes for them, doing their washing (and ironing) and ex-Vestas workers calling up on mobiles to show support.
In the interview Martin talks about the next stage of the protest, so put you feet up for a couple of minutes to hear more. [audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/martin-shaw-vestas-east-cowes.mp3]
