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Search forUpdate: Campaigners barricade themselves into building in protest against open-cast mining
Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 10:36
Members of the Leave It In The Ground group descended on land owned by UK Coal in Bell Lane, Smalley, at about 2am this morning.
Some of the activists got into a boarded-up farm building while others took over a treehouse in a nearby tree.
UK Coal plans to extract one million tonnes of coal from the 301 acre site but the protestors claim this would devastate the area.
Group member Julie, who did not want to give her second name, said: “We are taking action to prevent a coal industry bent on economic growth from destroying our future.”
The group claimed people inside the building had chained themselves to the doors by their necks in a bid to prevent the police from using force to get into the house.
Members said they had also taken food and supplies in with them as they were planning a “long-term occupation”.
The group claimed 20 people were involved in the protest, although only three could be seen today, occupying the roof of the building. There were said to be two people from Ticknall inside the building.
Hannah, 21, of Dorset, abseiled down from the building to speak to the Evening Telegraph.
She said: “The main act of resistance will be when the police try to move us.
“We have to raise awareness about the destruction of open cast mining and if we do that then the protest has been a success. We have got no other avenue of protest, we want to give a voice to the people.
“I am sure there are people here who would be prepared to lay down in front of the diggers. I have done it before and I might do it again but it would depend on whether it would be affective or not.”
Leave it in the Ground, is part of the Network for Climate Action, and has been involved in previous protest including the occupation of a coal train heading for Drax power station, in Selby.
Leave it in the Ground’s Andy Green, from Little Eaton, said: “We are here because the single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Coal fired generation is historically responsible for most of the CO2 in the air today - about half of all carbon dioxide emissions globally.
“Coal from open cast mines is dirtier than that from deep mines, so it is even worse.”
Leave It In the Ground claims it has planned a further demonstration next month at UK Coal's headquarters in Doncaster.
No police or representatives from UK Coal were at the scene of the protest by noon today.
A UK Coal spokesman said: “We respect people’s right to demonstrate but this scheme has gone through the full democratic planning process, so the motives behind the protest are questionable.”
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