Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
UK Coal wins battle to evict Telford mining protesters
Friday 15th July 2011, 1:15PM BST.
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Bosses at UK Coal who are mining 900,000 tonnes of coal from a Shropshire beauty spot today won their court battle to evict protesters from the site.
The company was granted the order at Telford County Court this morning for the eviction of the protesters from the site at Huntington Lane, near The Wrekin.
UK Coal was granted permission to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal from the site despite objections from residents and campaigners.
But in January last year, a small group of protesters set up camp on the site.
The protesters now have several tents, living quarters and lookout points at the camp which is manned 24- hours a day in their bid to fight the mining work.
Edward Gamble, for UK Coal, told the court the land belonged to the company, along with Harwood Estates (Agricultural Land) Ltd and Telford farmer James Roberts.
Protester Ben Hartley asked the court for a three-week extension to review the case, but Deputy District Judge Martin Edden refused on the grounds they were given two days notice about the hearing, as required by law.
Judge Edden then granted UK Coal permission to evict the protesters.
Outside court, David Bolton, surface mine manager for UK Coal, said the company was pleased with the decision but added that no eviction date had been set.
He added: “If unfortunately we have to spend money to go in and remove them, we will. Then the police will have their actions to take.”
Speaking outside court, a resident living near the site, who did not wish to be named, said: “It is a really good decision and it’s a shame it took so long.”
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Well there are going to be two lots of people busy following this, the police to deal with the disorder and the job centre as the swampies arrive to claim the dole. Strange how they aren’t fit enough to work yet are able to climb up trees or dig tunnels……
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About time. Common sense at last!
P.s. Job centre opening hours are 9am til 5pm
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Sorry you are so ignorant and your facts Pete are wrong but I have to point out these so called “swampies” as you have branded them, do actually work! Very hard too! Harder than your average Joe bloggs. They own land and work it 3 days a week in Wales you think they get land for free? Nope they work for it and pay for it duhhh! The rest of the week they have jobs to go to some even own their own business! At least they were doing this for the good of the land and not like our usual drop out chav’s walking the streets can of beer in hand, these people are good people they certainly don’t sponge off the dole like so many do these days! What they did was valid and I respect them for it and before you jump on the defensive and abuse me please note we are tax payers earning £46,000+ per annum stick that in your not so peace pipe and smoke it Pete!!! :0)
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A shame that posts are deleted unless expected to get a reaction here.
Its true indeed that many of the Protesters have “independant means” – I have a friend who was involved from day one of the Campaign against Uk Coal – and he is nicely well off thank you, no mortgage, debts, or financial worries.
There seems a bias that all present are drop out down and outs – some have nice University grants to live off, others healthy legacies from deceased parents.
Sadly there will always be a few dossers who string along at any camp, freeloaders, but you cannot class them all under one dirty tarpaulin.
Henry.
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Pete and Raymond
The big picture here is that if we keep burning coal, we will eventually trash the global economy through climate change. That means that your lives will grow a lot poorer; and if you have kids, their lives will be far worse than yours.
The majority of people before the war supported appeasement with Hitler because they didn’t like idea that the status quo was not sustainable. Folks like Churchill were initially vilified for their ideas as the majority just hoped that Hitler would go away without them having to change their lives.
The people at Huntington Lane are standing up and saying that the burning of coal is not sustainable. Like Churchill, they are standing up against an evil that attacks our way of life.
In ten years time, we will see who is on the right side of history on this one. If the climate keeps changing, I hope you, like many of the supporters of appeasement many years ago, will admit that you were wrong and should have stood up earlier. Better still, I hope you will lend your support to those on the right side of history now, like those brave few who stood up to Hitler in early 1930s, years before WW2 started and they were forced to pick sides.
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