After a successful Peace Camp in July at the main gate at Lakenheath, Lakenheath Alliance for Peace will be holding monthly vigils on the last Saturday of each month (except December), until the next Peace Camp which will be held from Monday 14th April until Friday 25th April.

43 years after Greenham Common, a peace camp to stop US Nuclear weapons was needed again

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace is a coalition of groups dedicated to preventing the return of US nuclear weapons to USAF Lakenheath. The Alliance established a Vigil for Peace at the main gate.

In 2008, with the removal of nuclear weapons from Lakenheath, we could look forward to a safer world.

We were wrong! The US is bringing even more powerful nuclear weapons back to East Anglia.

In March we wrote a letter to the base commanders at USAF/RAF Lakenheath, telling them they will break international and national law and threaten global peace and security by hosting US nuclear weapons at Lakenheath. These attack weapons can never be used in accordance with international law, and their deployment is an unlawful threat to world peace. Despite a promise from Commander Stewart Geary to acknowledge and reply to our letter, no reply has been received.

The upgraded and more advanced guided nuclear bomb – the B61-12 – is delivered more accurately by satellite and is a first-strike weapon system. This will be a major increase in NATO’s capacity to start a nuclear war in Europe and is dangerously destabilising, increasing global tensions and putting the UK on the front line in any NATO/Russia war.

We are also extremely concerned about the environmental impact of all the squadron flights that take place each day in the skies above us. It has been calculated that each F-35 at Lakenheath burns 22 gallons of fuel per minute. It has been spoken of as a climate killer.

A clear majority of UN states back the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), in recognition that only complete elimination can remove the ongoing existential threat they pose. There are many people in the UK and globally who are in despair at the dangerous waste of resources going into weapons and wars at this time, when we should be dealing with the climate and biodiversity crises. 

On Saturday 11th May protesters from all over East Anglia met at the main gate at RAF/USAF Lakenheath to make Lakenheath a nuclear-free zone. US plans to site deadly nuclear bombs at the base would put Britain on the nuclear frontline. The threat of nuclear weapons being used again in war is growing. Speakers from Norwich, Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds outlined the dangers and read out the following declaration:

We are residents who live across the East of England.

We know that US plans to deploy its nuclear bombs here at Lakenheath will not make us safer, but – on the contrary – make the world far more dangerous. 

With tensions still dangerously high between NATO and Russia, siting these weapons of mass destruction in Britain puts us all on the frontline of a nuclear war. 

We declare our support for the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), a historic treaty which prohibits its signatories from developing, testing and using nuclear weapons. 

We recognise the necessity of creating a nuclear weapons-free world and denounce this government’s refusal to sign or ratify this landmark treaty. 

We call on the British government to work for global nuclear disarmament by:

• refusing delivery of any US nuclear weapons and instead making Lakenheath a nuclear-free zone
• signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, thereby joining the global majority of countries opposed to nuclear weapons 
• cancelling the replacement of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system
• using all diplomatic avenues possible to work towards a nuclear-free world

On Tuesday March 26th activists from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace approached the main gate to deliver a letter to the commanders. After about an hour of waiting for someone from the USAF to come, the RAF Commander Stewart Geary arrived. He read the letter and promised to deliver it to the USAF commanders.

Norwich and District CND has joined the newly formed Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP).
LAP is a coalition of groups that is dedicated to preventing the
return of US Nuclear weapons to USAF Lakenheath. It is committed to
nonviolent direct action for a peaceful and non-threatening world. It
demands that military resources are instead directed towards global
peace and justice and the prevention of human-caused climate change and biodiversity loss. NCND members will be supporting the peace camp at Lakenheath in the summer and hope that many supporters will join in. A website is in the process of being built at
https://lakenheathallianceforpeace.org.uk  and the email is  lap@gn.apc.org

It is still 90 seconds to midnight – see 2024 Doomsday Clock Statement:

“Nuclear Armageddon – how close are we?” – Watch BBC Panorama documentary:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vgq5

Lakenheath Citizens Inspection 9th December 2023

The latest Nuclear Free Local Authorities Policy Briefing No.281 is about Lakenheath: you can read the bulletin and letters referring to it from the MOD and the Suffolk Resilience Forum here:

On Saturday 23rd September we held an information stall in Market Hill, Brandon. At the main gate of RAF Lakenheath a group of Citizens Weapons Inspectors were refused permission (previously agreed with police liaison) to hand over a letter to the Commander. There was much better press coverage this time: https://cnduk.org/in-pictures-lakenheath-day-of-action-23-september-2023/

For any queries please contact sue.wright44@icloud.com