In a field above Quarry Street Padiham three green pillars emerge from the grass. Normally the largest of the three is sealed but this weekend a member of the Royal Observer Corps occasionally gazed from the open hatch.

Meanwhile yards away in Padiham town centre members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were busy handing out leaflets informing people that here was the Burnley areas nuclear bunker. They were urging people to go and see for themselves. But the uniformed member of the royal Observer Corps in the bunker refused to say anything advising only that you could be contravening the official secrets act. Padiham police said they intervened during Saturday to ask about 25 people to leave the area mainly representatives of CND. The main point said the ROC officers – it was private land and we asked them to leave. The UK warning and monitoring organisation was more forthcoming saying the manning of the Padiham bunker was part of an exercise involving 11,000 members throughout the UK aimed at giving broadcast warnings to the general population in the event of an air attack on the country. CND viewed the ROC use of the bunker as being contrary to their position and intend to disrupt any campaign of exercises within the nuclear free zone of Burnley.