Two veteran peace campaigners have been banned by a Court from taking part in a mass protest against war on Iraq at an American "spy'' base in North Yorkshire.

The US communications station at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, is to be targeted by peace activists from all over Britain on March 22 and Sylvia Boyes, 59, and Olivia Agate, a 62-year-old grandmother, intended to be there.

But the pair were arrested at the base last month after a security fence had been cut and daubed with red paint.

They have been charged with criminal damage and bailed to appear before Harrogate magistrates on March 31.

Boyes (pictured) of Winbourne Drive, Keighley, and Agate, from Skipton, were in the same court on Tuesday seeking to persuade magistrates to lift a bail condition.

It insists they do not go within 50 metres of Ministry of Defence land at Menwith Hill, which they say effectively bans them from being part of the demonstration, which has been organised by Neighbourhoods Opposing War with support from the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases and CND.

Boyes told the court they wanted the sanction lifted just for the one day so they could be part of a peaceful public protest "against something that is wrong and which we feel very strongly about."

She said a big demonstration was planned under the name Foil the Base, in which lots of foil balloons and kites would be launched in an attempt to disrupt satellite signals.

Agate said it was to be a family day. She wanted to take her grandchildren and had been asked to act as a steward. She would not cross the "yellow line" which marked the limit of MoD land.

Peter Scott, for the Crown Prosecution Service, opposed the lifting of a condition imposed initially by the police and reinforced twice by courts.

"They say the demonstration will be peaceful," he said. "The activity with which they are charged was not peaceful. My information is that this is to be a big demonstration, big in terms of numbers and where spirits can run high.

"There is a concern that once there are these numbers, there might be a tendency to repeat that which has gone on before."

Court chairman Bernadette Reid refused to lift the bail condition. "Your ability to demonstrate peacefully will not be impaired by the present restrictions," she said.