Eviction bid for coal protesters
Saturday 21st August 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Coal bosses today revealed legal papers are being prepared to evict protesters camping near a Shropshire beauty spot earmarked for mining.
UK Coal said the action was being taken as the company geared up to start mining at the Little Wenlock site, near The Wrekin, by the autumn.
But the Defend Huntington Lane group today said it was still hoping to stop the development to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal.
UK Coal said today it would go ahead – and sooner rather that later.
Spokesman Stuart Oliver said if protesters did not leave peacefully, they would be forcibly evicted.
He said the Telford site had been put on the back-burner as bosses focused their attentions on completing operations at mines in Northumberland and Durham.
He said: “Those have been sorted now and work is starting – they are both significantly larger sites than Telford and there has been no protests or campaigns there.
“We hope to be on site and starting with work proper by the autumn.
“We are currently in the process of putting papers together. It will eventually culminate in a court order which will give us the power to remove the protesters from the land.
“Hopefully they will stick to their oft-repeated promise that they will leave peacefully.
“If not, a national eviction team will go in once all the paperwork is in place to remove them.
“We are as committed as ever to starting work on this site as soon as possible.”
A spokesman for the protesters said they had no intention of giving up without a fight — and issued a rallying call for more people to join them.
He said: “Time is fast running out before an eviction notice is served and the camp would like to issue a call out for people, tools, lock on gear of all kinds — padlocks, D-locks — water and food. Words of solidarity and support are also very gratefully received.”
Campaigners first moved onto the site in the shadow of The Wrekin six months ago after the mining application was approved.
Since then they have dug a network of tunnels underneath the site and floated down the Severn on a hand-made raft to highlight their cause.
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Perhaps we can now see if the protesters/campaigners will abide by a legal decision if the eviction order is lodged, they have been through the legal process and lost.
You cannot use the law when it suits you and ignore it when decisions go against you, it is called the rule of law.
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Uk Coal can do whatever they like – the tunnels are in place, people are capable and ready to go under, and Bailiffs wont find it easy getting to them, or down the tunnels.
I know how difficult it is as I attempted to go down myself recently and got stuck fast halfway down the entry and couldnt go up or down until given help from below and above.
The subsequent “All out call to every available Eco Warrior” will now take place, and this will become a national issue whch others like minded can flock to and focus upon.
Lets hope the call will be answered by many folk, and the site will remain occupied and unworkable.
For the sake of local people who live adjacent to, or downwind of the site, may this hope be realised, for people really dont know what is coming when they get started coaling.
Magister.
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For the whole of a very long life I enforced and administered the “rule of law” in a number of different capacities and where has the “rule of law” got us. It would take to long to go into but the present state of our country, over populated, over built on, environmentally damaged almost beyond repair or renewal and with an overall quality of life that is on a deeply decending spiral down then I now say, thank god for the efforts of those who have the courage to challenge the “rule of law” and break it if necessary in order to bring us back from the brink of utter devastation.
To those “Eco Warriors”, I say this, wear this label with great pride, in you and your ilk lies the future state of our environment and if it means breaking the law to stop huge swathes of our precious green countryside given over to coal mines, railway links, airport runways and huge housing estates to house the never ending millions of newcomers to our little country then I say, so be it, more power to your elbow. If I had the foresight many years ago to see what our country was being reduced to by strict adherence to the “rule of law”, I also would have broke it rather than follow the career that I did. 40 years younger and I would be there with you, keep up the good fight.
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You won’t win. Non tax paying eco warriors versus massive corporation tax paying company. Local councils, government and anyone else with half a brain will support the latter in putting much needed funds back into this country’s coffers.
And if you do take the law into your own hands you deserve everything you get. Suppose you’ll start screaming police brutality in the event of forcible eviction.
Wake up and smell the coffee made with the water heated up by coal!
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