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Search forBailiffs 'just eight feet' away from underground eco-protesters at Smalley
Monday, August 11, 2008, 08:15
For almost two months, activists have barricaded themselves inside the farmhouse in Smalley and burrowed into a tunnel in their attempts to thwart the start of opencast coal mining at the site.
Last night, two remained underground as bailiffs called a temporary halt in their attempts to dig them out.
The pair's spirits would still be high, according to one supporter at the site yesterday, himself a veteran of a similar environmental campaign.
The man, who identified himself only as Ben, said he had been involved in a similar stand-off with officials in 1999.
He said: "They will be loving it down there. They have been in the tunnel since Thursday and it shows their commitment.
"I was in a protest tunnel in Rettendon, in Essex, for 40 days to campaign against the Outer London Orbital Road and I thought it was great, a real adrenalin rush."
Ben said the two protesters in the tunnel – one male and one female – had food and drink supplies and a compressor to provide themselves with air.
He said: "When you are down there, it is a very small space but it is your own little world almost. There were five people in my tunnel and we all knew when the bailiffs were getting closer because they were talking to us."
To ensure the safety of the protesters, bailiffs from the National Eviction Team have had to delicately expand the 18in-diameter tunnel – which police said was 8ft long and went 10ft underground – to allow enough room for two people to be brought out. The eviction process has involved bailiffs and police reinforcing the tunnel walls with wood to prevent a collapse, while slowly removing bucket after bucket of soil.
The protesters are among a group opposed to the mining of the site by UK Coal.
The company has Government clearance to mine for four-and-a-half years, despite Derbyshire County Council having refused to grant planning permission. The protesters have been occupying the derelict Prospect Farm building for almost two months in their attempt to prevent the start of mining at the 334-acre site this autumn.
However, a spokesman for UK Coal said bailiffs yesterday evening believed they were only 6ft to 8ft away from the remaining pair in the tunnel.
Chief Inspector Graham McLaughlin said two people were arrested while trying to get into the farm on Saturday night and a further two were arrested yesterday for climbing trees on land covered by a High Court order. Seven trees have now been uprooted by a 73-ton digger to prevent further climbers.
Seven campaigners were arrested during the first two days of the eviction, which began on Thursday after UK Coal won a court order to clear the protesters from its land.
UK Coal spokesman Stuart Oliver said the process of removing the protesters was taking so long for safety reasons.
He said: "The safety of all those involved, from the bailiffs to the protesters who have put themselves in this dangerous situation, has remained the number one priority throughout.
"It is a shame that their presence has led to the felling of seven trees on the advice of police and the National Eviction Team. It is disappointing that so-called ecologists have caused this."
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HOLDING OUT: Police and bailiffs at Prospect Farm, in Bell Lane, Smalley, as work continues to remove the last two protesters from a tunnel. Below left, supporters waiting outside the site.
