NAVAL commanders are considering shutting down the Faslane nuclear naval base ahead of a planned blockade by anarchists during this summer’s G8 summit at Gleneagles.

Senior Ministry of Defence officials fear staff could be put at risk by the demonstration, which is planned to coincide with the gathering of the leaders of the world’s richest countries at the Gleneagles hotel in Auchterarder, Perthshire.

Under the Navy plan, most of the 6,500 people who work at the nuclear facility could be told to stay at home. A skeleton staff of security and other “essential” employees would be transported to the base on the Clyde by helicopter or boat.

Thousands of anarchists and anti-globalisation activists are expected to converge on Faslane — home to all four British Trident submarines — in July. A message posted on one anarchist website, boasts: “We’re going to shut down the largest military base in Scotland for the day . . . nuclear weapons are the ultimate symbol of militarism. By blockading Faslane we’re striking at a key part of the British military establishment.”

Although Faslane is accustomed to protests by anti- nuclear campaigners, the anti-globalisation protesters are considered a more serious threat. “Our intelligence people are monitoring the situation closely,” said a source at the base. “We are anticipating it being a pretty severe blockade and one consideration is closing the base for the duration.

“We’re used to this sort of thing but the people planning it are not the ordinary peaceful protesters. They have a different agenda. The MoD has a duty of care to its people. It might be seen as a victory for protesters but closing the base will not affect its number one priority, which is to make sure the fleet is ready.”

Earlier this month, anarchists met at a military-style camp in Lanarkshire to discuss tactics for paralysing transport links in Scotland during the three-day summit. More than 300 people, including radicals from Canada, Iceland and South Korea, discussed strategies to disrupt road and rail links in central Scotland.

Activists at the Festival of Dissent, who included veterans of previous anti-globalisation protests in Genoa, Gothenburg and London, are reported to have discussed electronically sabotaging railway signals to shut down main lines and ways of disrupting traffic on the A9 and Forth Road Bridge.

Yesterday, Italian anti-capitalists behind the G8 protest in Genoa in 2001, during which one man was killed and hundreds injured, met in Edinburgh to discuss tactics for the Gleneagles summit. They were joined by about 20 activists from Holland, Belgium, Ireland and Germany.

Plans for the Faslane blockade were on the agenda, as were mass protests in Edinburgh and at the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire.

Police, who are organising a £20m security operation involving 10,000 officers, said they were prepared to deal with violent protests. “There may well be groups intent on infiltrating Faslane but we are fully prepared,” said a spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland).

“In addition to the specialist units from Scotland we will also be drafting in officers from English forces, such as those trained to tackle animal rights extremism.

“We are expecting the protest to be peaceful and lawful but we will not hesitate to stop illegal activity.”

Antonino Campenni, an Italian activist who attended yesterday’s meeting in Edinburgh, said: “We don’t bear responsibility for the indiscriminate violence thrown against all kinds of demonstrators at Genoa.

“I think the authorities learnt that’s not the way to handle us, our intention is simply to protest peacefully and exercise a different point of view. We hope the authorities will let us do it.”

The summit was overshadowed by the death of Carlo Giuliani, a demonstrator who was shot dead by Italian police. About 500 protesters were injured in riots that caused millions of pounds of damage to banks, shops and other businesses.

Times Recommends

• Tower block death blaze ‘suspicious’
• Licence payers fund BBC chief's £8m pension
• Potter star falls victim to swine flu