Eviction ends Telford coal protest

Friday 19th August 2011, 3:29PM BST.

Campaigners were this afternoon evicted from the site of a massive new mine in Telford after defying UK Coal bosses for 18 months.

An eviction team working on behalf of the company was sent onto the site in Huntington Lane, Little Wenlock, this morning to remove the protesters and destroy their camp.

Tents and platforms were set on fire and the protesters were escorted from the makeshift camp, which was set up in February last year.

It comes after the company, which has permission to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal from the site, won permission to evict the protesters at a hearing at Telford County Court last month.

Suzy Murphy, one of the protesters, said: “They came in this morning and there was about 20 of them.

“They came in with a full team of tunnellers and cherry pickers. They caught us a bit unaware because some had gone off site.”

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