West Midlands Climate Action

Activists temporarily halt work

west midlands climate action — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:29:24 +0000

On Tuesday 5th July activists from the Telford no new coal (aka Defend Huntington Lane) protest site halted early morning operations by storming the open cast mine. Two protesters dead locked on to heavy plant machinery, disrupting the destruction caused by them. Activists have been on the site for 15 months and are awaiting eviction papers. The camp is situated in what would be the road between the current mine site to another, and in an area of natural beauty

First Birthday & Gathering

west midlands climate action — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:53:38 +0000

The protest camp at Huntington Lane is now a year old and will be having a gathering from the 25-28 February. The camp was set up after it was discovered that UK Coal had started work by clearing part of the forest. In October the actual mining work began on the southern part of the site.

The weekend gathering will include skill-sharing, site skills, action and defense building, information sharing and networking with activists from other campaigns.

For more information go to the camps website http://defendhuntingtonlane.wordpress.com/

Huntington Lane site entrance protest

west midlands climate action — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:45:03 +0000

On Saturday 11^th December activists from across the country took action in solidarity with the Huntington Lane protest camp at New Works, Telford in Shropshire. The protest camp has been occupying the land between Site A and Site B of a proposed open cast coal mine since early March but put out a call for help in October after UK Coal started preparatory work on the southernmost part of the site. In response to this callout, people descended upon the site and successfully protested at the entrance to the mine. No arrests were made. The protest came at the end of a successful gathering at the anti-coal site which saw skill sharing, plenty of vegan food and essential work done to the camp. The action also follows on from a number of recent actions at Huntington Lane that have been disrupting the work of UK Coal, last month at a similar gathering a group of digger divers successfully brought work on the mine to a standstill after trespassing onto the mine and jumping on to the earth movers.

There has never been any community consent for the mine and even the local council were originally opposed to the idea, in fact the only reason planning permission was granted was when central government stepped in to give the go ahead. There remains strong local opposition to the mine and continued support for the camp.

The 230 acre site is near the Wrekin which is part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is home to a scheduled ancient monument. The flora and fauna of the boroughs largest ancient woodland which is considered by some to be some of the country’s most beautiful woodland is also threatened by the surface mine. Work on the mine is also destroying local habitats and bio diversity in the area.

When finished 900,000 tons of coal will have been extracted from the mine which will result in more than 2,430,000 tonnes of CO2 being released. This is unacceptable, coal is the most carbon intensive of all the fossil fuels and coal fired power stations like the one in nearby Telford (the final destination of the Huntington Lane Coal) are the least efficient type of power station with two thirds of the energy they generate being wasted. NASA’s leading climate scientist Dr James Hanson has said “It is moral turpitude, depravity, to build more coal-fired power plants or open cast mines, knowing what we know now. It was one thing to dig coal when we didn’t know the consequences, but quite another thing today”

Digger Divers shut down Huntington Lane SMS

west midlands climate action — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:04:30 +0000

Last Monday a group of autonomous activists trespassed onto Site A at Huntington Lane where preparation works are currently under way and took part in some “digger diving”. The activists climbed onto one of the earth movers forcing all work on the site to stop. One of the two security guards who had been caught off guard illegally detained one activist who was quickly released following the help of the other activists. As a result of this action work on site was stopped for approximately an hour with no arrests being made. UK coal started trashing the land on site A the southern most part of the site on the 13 October, the Huntington Lane protest camp has now been occupying the land between site A and site B for over 8 months

Crude Awakening

west midlands climate action — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:55:09 +0000

(Video by You and I Films) Crude Awakening took a different approach to previous years mass direct actions, such as last years great climate swoop where the target is announced weeks in advance, with the day of action normally being a standoff with police, who like everyone else have also been warned weeks in advance. Crude Awakening was different in that a mass direct action was announced but the target kept a secret. Only that it would be an action against the oil industry somewhere in London. On the morning of the action people could choose to be part of one of three different Blocs that would end up converging at the final location. These were the Dirty Money Bloc, the Building Bloc and the Body Bloc meeting at Euston, Waterloo and Victoria respectively. At 10:00am SMS messages were sent to the different blocs directing them round London via the tube and eventually ending up at the final destination Coryton oil refinery, not in London but Essex. This proved to be the masterstroke as the police had been expecting something to happen in London so were taken off guard, which allowed 12 women to successfully handcuff themselves to two immobile vehicles on the only road leading to the refinery. Police took some of their frustrations out on the body bloc by delaying their train and performing a stop and search, a stop and search under the same law that was ruled to be illegal at Kingsnorth. The three blocs then started arriving to reinforce the blockade and set up a second blockade further down the road which also happened to be on a crossroads with the only road out of a second refinery owned by Shell. The secretive tactics paid off, as this the busiest oil refinery in the UK with hundreds of Oil tankers leaving every day was effectively shut down and 375,000 gallons of oil prevented from leaving.

Huntington Lane Site A “Eviction”

west midlands climate action — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:48:19 +0000

At around 8:30am Wednesday 13th the National Eviction Team with police backup arrived on Site A to find the tree houses unoccupied. Site A is where work on the mine will start. The tree houses have now been removed and branches lopped off the trees so they can’t go back up.

The main Huntington Lane camp is located between Site A and Site B on what will become a link road between the two sites. Although there were tree houses on Site A it was never really seriously defended hence the Eviction team finding them empty. It has however proved to be an effective early warning system as the main camp is now on full alert as it prepares for eviction. For anyone waiting for the eviction call out, this is it. As many people as possible are needed to help defend the site.

Protesters have been threatened with arrest should they trespass upon Site A. An eviction notice is yet to be served but this chain of events would appear to suggest its imminent arrival. Heavy machinery is now on site and breaking ground. We would encourage any concerned individuals to pay a visit to camp whether it be to stay on, help out with defenses, leave a donation or lend their moral support.

Please call 07503 583419 for info or to get involved.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/465751.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-11532708

The best way to keep up to date with latest news is by checking the Huntington lane blog

http://defendhuntingtonlane.wordpress.com/

Camp for Climate Action 2010 Photos

west midlands climate action — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:38:15 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

Eviction Imminent!

west midlands climate action — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:31:49 +0000

It seems likely that the Huntington Lane camp will face eviction within the next two weeks. UK Coal are to be issued an Environmental License at the end of August so that mining can begin on the site. Farmers have been asked to move livestock and some jobs have been advertised by local firm McPhilips.

The camp is calling out for help: people, tools, lock on gear of all kinds (padlocks,D-locks etc), water and food.

More information about the camp including a map and directions can be found on our Huntington Lane page

Photos of Huntington Lane

west midlands climate action — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:27:54 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

UK Coal set to “dry mine” Huntington Lane

west midlands climate action — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:10:20 +0000

As part of the original agreement UK Coal were supposed to wash the coal to dampen it which prevents too much dust from being produced. Severn Trent the local water supplier are now saying that the local pipeline won’t provide enough pressure for UK Coal to use as well as local residents. They will therefore have to pay for a new pipeline, however as we reported earlier UK Coal are massively in debt and cannot afford extra expenses like this. They decided instead that they will “dry mine” Huntington Lane, going against the original terms of the agreement. Dry mining will cause a lot more dust to be created and could have a negative impact on the health of local residents. It also raises concerns over other promises UK Coal have made such as restoring the mine after they have finished.