Convoys – NukewatchUK

May 2019 Convoy report

The convoy that had been in Burghfield since Thurs May 9th left on the morning of Wed May 15th. It headed east on the M4, around the M25 and then north on the A1. After a break at RAF Wittering it continued up the A1 and into RAF Leeming late afternoon.

It was spotted the following morning, Wed May 16th, at Scotch corner heading north on the A1 but then took the A69 across country to Carlisle. Taking its usual route up the M74, M73, M80, M9 and A811 it arrived at Coulport in early evening. You can see a film of the full convoy here.

Leaving Coulport on May 21st unusually late at lunchtime it headed back via Stirling and down the M74 and was spotted on the M6 near Penrith in the evening.

It returned to Burghfield late evening/overnight May 22/23

March 2019 Convoy report: A breakdown & a new workshop vehicle

A nuclear weapons convoy set off from AWE Burghfield on the morning of Tues March 19th and headed west on the M4 and then north on the A34. It pulled off onto the slip road at Didcot where the warhead carriers and their security escort were parked for 15 minutes. Other support vehicles went to the nearby services. See a report about it in the Oxford Mail

It then continued on the A34, M40 and A43 to join the M1 north. It was later spotted on the A1 near Aberford.

The following day March 20th the convoy was picked up in Scotland on the M74 at Abington in mid afternoon. It then went north on the M73, M80 and M9 to Stirling then via the A811 to RNAD Coulport.

These vehicles left again on March 26th but individually and not in full convoy formation.

Two new vehicles were spotted in this convoy:

OSU van – white with blue/yellow checkers on side, no side windows, Iveco make, seen in front of the main convoy.

Green / khaki large coach – seen in rear support convoy near usual silver / mauve coach. The usual Renault big workshop van with decontamination trailer was not seen so presumed to have been replaced by the new coach.

Report of January 2019 Convoy

A convoy with four warhead carriers left AWE Burghfield on the morning of Saturday January 12^th. After joining the M4 it headed east, went round the M25 and then north on the A1 until it stopped for a break at RAF Wittering. From there it continued north on the A1 again to spend a night at RAF Leeming. The following day, Sunday 13^th it was spotted on the M74 near Hamilton early afternoon. Heading up the M73 and M80 to the M9 it took a break at DSG Forthside in Stirling. It then had to loop back south to re-join the M9 and then go north to turn off west on the A811. From Balloch it travelled up the side of Loch Lomond to arrive at RNAD Coulport late afternoon.

On Thursday January 17^th the convoy set out for the return journey. 4 warhead carriers left mid morning and returned by the A811, M9, M80, M73 and M74 passing Hamilton mid afternoon. The following day January 18^th it was seen on the A1 at Wentbridge and Doncaster. After going onto the M1 it turned off on the M69 to take a break at Gamecock Barracks. From there it went on to M6 then back on to M1, leaving at the A43 Northampton junction. From there it went via the A43, M40 and A34, hitting the Northern Oxford ring road (Kidlington) during the rush hour and then south to the M4 and back into Burghfield.

A video of the convoy leaving its break in Stirling on the way up (Sunday 13th Jan) filmed by Mark Ruskell, Nukewatcher and Member of the Scottish Parliament was posted on his Facebook face has been shared thousands of times and been seen by 185,000 people in a week.

March 2018 convoy and a thought about incident response.

A nuclear weapons convoy left AWE Burghfield on Thursday March 22. It was later seen on the A1 at junction 49 near Dishforth (15 miles north of Wetherby). The following day it was spotted crossing over to the west on the A66 and then on the M74 just south of Lesmahagow. It then continued around the east of Glasgow on the M73 and past Cumbernauld on the M80 to take a break at DSG Stirling mid-afternoon. It then took the M9, A811 and A82 to RNAD Coulport.

On Monday March 26 this convoy left Coulport to return south. Taking a route through Balloch and Stirling then onto the M9 and M8 to the Edinburgh bypass it then took a break at Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik. After continuing south on the A1 passing Berwick on Tweed it passed through Newcastle and after an overnight stop it then continued down the A1. It crossed country to the A34 travelling around Oxford and getting back to Burghfield around 5pm.

Meanwhile a message from Nukewatchers in Scotland…..

The Kerslake Report on the Manchester Arena bombing last year was published this week with its criticism of poor inter-agency working and communication failures. The last publicised exercise testing multi-agency responses to a nuclear convoy accident was in 2011 and the follow-up report noted poor inter-agency working and poor communication. The Scottish councils through which convoys regularly pass were asked in a 2016 survey whether they had adjusted their policies or procedures in the light of the 2011 report. They all said they had not. In the Manchester case there had at least been a recent exercise based on a terrorist scenario and involving all the relevant agencies but, as Kerslake himself has said, a simulation exercise is all very well but a real life situation provides its own unforeseeable challenges. All of which makes the title of the Nukewatch 2017 report “Unready Scotland” ever more accurate. In Scotland we are not ready to respond effectively to a serious nuclear weapon convoy incident and perhaps we never could be. Meanwhile the Scottish government, which has been well apprised of the serious deficits in readiness, has still not agreed to conduct a modest review of the response capacities of the civil authorities in Scotland. That is not good enough.

Please sign our petition asking the Scottish Government to take action.

First convoy of 2018 takes new route on M8

Nuclear Warhead Convoy report January 2018

The first convoy of 2018 left Burghfield on January 31^st with four warhead carriers and the usual support vehicles. It travelled west along the M4 then north on the A34 passed Oxford, M40 and A46 round Leamington Spa and Coventry and then had a break at Gamecock Barracks near Nuneaton. By mid-afternoon it was back on the road traveling up country for an overnight stop in the north of England. On Thu February 1^st it continued north and appeared later than previously on the Edinburgh bypass in the early evening and turned off to Glencorse Barracks for a break. Unusually it then took the M8 west passing Livingston and Bathgate and then through the centre of Glasgow before crossing the Erskine Bridge to head up the A82 arriving at Coulport after 10pm.

This convoy set off for the return journey on the morning of Monday 5^th February taking the A82 and A811 to Stirling where is stopped at DSG Forthside for a break. It then headed down the M9 and M8 and around the Edinburgh bypass to the A1. After going past Dunbar and Berwick upon Tweed it turned off the A1 at Alnwick to RAF Boulmer for a break before heading south again on the A1 which took it right through Newcastle during the evening rush hour.

After an overnight stop it was again on the road passing Aberford on the A1 mid-morning. It continued right down the A1 past Harrogate and Doncaster before stopping at RAF Wittering for a break and then appears to have continued into heavy traffic around the M25 and M4 getting back to Burghfield by early evening

This convoy again passed through and close to many towns and cities along its route often in heavy traffic.

Nukewatch published a report UNREADY SCOTLAND : the critical gap in our response to the transport of nuclear weapons last year. It is based mainly on a survey of Scottish local authorities on routes taken by the warhead convoys conducted by MSP Mark Ruskell in the autumn of 2016, this report scrutinises the preparedness of the Scottish civil authorities to deal adequately with any incident or accident involving the convoys that transport the weapons. It makes worrying reading.

The report calls on the Scottish Government to conduct a review of the way the councils and others like the emergency services would cope with a serious convoy accident. As they have not yet agreed to that please Sign the Petition and circulate it to others.

If you live in a Scottish Local Authority area on a convoy route write to your council about their response to the survey.
If you live in England a more general letter to your council with some questions can be found here

November 2017 convoy halted in Stirling.

On Wednesday 15^th November a full convoy including four warhead carriers left Burghfield in the morning. It went west on the M4 to junction 12 and then north on the A34 around Oxford. Crossing the M40 it took the A41 to MOD Arncott for a break. It then went back onto the M40 north to junction 15 and onto the A46 and then the M69 to go into Gamecock Barracks for lunch. After that it headed up to the M1 and continued north.

The next day, Thursday 16^th, it was spotted on the M74 just north of Carlisle so had crossed over to the West route at some point. It continued up onto the M73, M80 and then the M9 turning off to take a break at DSG Stirling. As it left there is was briefly halted by three protesters carrying copies of the recently published Nukewatch report UNREADY SCOTLAND. They were arrested for obstructing the police. The convoy continued back onto the M9 and then turned west on the A811 and up the A82 arriving at Coulport in the dark.

On Monday 20^th November the convoy left Coulport although strangely it only had two warhead carriers with all the escort. It took the A811 to Stirling and continued on the M9 to the Edinburgh bypass where it turned off to Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik. A film taken of it leaving there was later posted on Facebook and has currently been shared 1153 times and been viewed by 72,000 people. Returning to the Edinburgh bypass the convoy continued down the A1 passing Newcastle to stop overnight at RAF Leeming. The next day it returned to Burghfield via the A1 crossing to the M40 and the A34. Towards the end of its journey it was caught up in lots of heavy traffic.

Warhead Delivery to Scotland Sept 2017

A nuclear weapons convoy with four warhead carriers left Burghfield early on Monday September 25^th taking the M4 and then the A34 around Oxford. It went onto the M40 and stopped mid-morning at Kineton near Banbury. After taking the A46 around Coventry to the M1 it went into Chetwynd Barracks on the outskirts of Nottingham. The convoy was then seen on the M1 passing junction 62 mid-afternoon.

On the morning of Tuesday September 26^th it was seen coming off the A66 onto the M6. It headed north onto the M74 and took the M80 and M9 to Stirling. From there the convoy headed west via the A811 and up the A82 to turn across the A817 arriving at Coulport at around 6pm.

On the morning of Sunday 1st October the convoy set off south again passing through Stirling to the M9, M80 and M74. It crossed the country to the A1 and was seen again the next day heading south to the M25 and then west on the M4 to return to Burghfield.

This is the first convoy delivering warheads to Scotland that we have been aware of since May this year. Since then Nukewatchers in Scotland have published a report UNREADY SCOTLAND and will be embarking on a series of public meetings. For more information about the report and the meetings see here

Please sign our petition to the Scottish Government asking for a review of civil authority arrangements for dealing with a convoy accident. Although defence is reserved to Westminster the Scottish Government is responsible for making sure local authorities make risk assessments for hazards in their area and communicate these to the public. This would lead to greater awareness of the existence of road transport of nuclear weapons and enable the public to decide if it was a risk they want to take.

Sign it here

Convoy breaks down on M40 – May 2017

A convoy of four warhead carriers with all the escort vehicles left Burghfield on the morning of Monday May 15^th and headed along the M4 and up the A34 past Oxford. As it was joining junction 9 of the M40 at around 11am it obviously had a problem and pulled over onto the hard shoulder with some of the rear vehicles stopping in a layby still on the A34. The police stopped all the traffic on the slip road so that one of the Mercedes armoured personnel carriers (APC)s could be turned around to face the wrong way and hitched up to the tow truck that travels with the convoy. After 45 minutes the convoy set off up the motorway and the tow truck with APC followed later.

Nukewatchers who had been following it were able to get good photographs which were passed to the press later on.

We later had information from a member of the public that it was seen in the north of Lancaster having left the M6 at junction 34, now with its full complement of APCs. It appears to have spent the night at Halton Training Camp and left there again on the morning of Tues 16^th May.

The convoy then travelled up the M6, M74, M80, M9 to stop for a break in DSG Stirling. After leaving there friends from Scottish CND took a good film of it. Watch it here. It then continued along the A811 to Balloch and went up Loch Lomondside and across the Haul road to Coulport arriving late afternoon.