Human chain against mine
Protesters at the Bradley Opencast site yesterday in a bid to halt workers extracting coal CAMPAIGNERS formed a human chain yesterday in a bid to halt wotk at an opencast coal mine.
Mining firm Banks Group has started to extract 500,000 tonnes of coal from the Pont Valley site, near Consett in County Durham.
Dressed in red, protesters held banners with ‘Protect Pont Valley’ on and formed a human chain spelling out ‘ No Coal’. The group wants to show opposition to the mine along with other pits proposed in the North East, including near Druridge Bay in Northumberland.
But Banks said the site will create 30 jobs and the Government’s own projections say coal will be an important part of the UK’s energy supply.
June Davison, who took part in the protest, said: “Banks’ Bradley site is on my doorstep and I empathise with other communities currently being affected by, or under threat from, opencast coal extraction.”
She added: “You can’t ‘restore’ hundred-year-old hawthorn hedges, not in a lifetime.”
The activists argue more sustainable jobs could be created by using the land for leisure and tourism.
It is the latest in a string of protests organised by campaigners fighting the site.
Activists have already climbed the last tree and set up a ‘land protection camp’ on the site, aiming to prevent the felling of trees
But a judge ordered them to leave before police and bailiffs arrived on the site to evict them.
Protesters also spent the night with their arms locked to stop work on an access road to the site.
They blocked one lane of the A692 between Leadgate and Dipton for more than 14 hours, with police unable to remove them.
Sara James, a member of the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley, said: “Although work has started, we are rising because we will not accept being ignored by Banks Group and the Government.”
She added: “We stand united and take action to demand an immediate end to coal extraction, and ecological destruction, in the UK and abroad.”
Mark Dowdall, environment and community director at The Banks Group, says: “The UK still requires coal as an essential raw material for our cement, steel manufacturing and other industries. It is also used to warm homes in areas without gas and remains an important part of the country’s mix for generating electricity.
“We believe that it is clearly in the UK’s national interest to continue to invest in skilled local mining jobs in North East England and to contribute towards meeting UK demand for coal from an indigenous source, rather than increasing our already substantial reliance on coal imports from distant overseas locations such as Russia and the US.
“Banks Mining is a North East, family-owned firm that has been investing in the region for more than four decades, with hundreds of local and regional jobs being directly and indirectly created and sustained as a result, and we are continuing to progress work at our Bradley site in the safest, most efficient and most environmentally responsible way possible.”